TUCSON- The Douglas Bulldogs took on Gila Regional leader Santa Rita Friday night in what many were hoping to see how these two schools, both of whom were 2-0 in league play, would match up.
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The game was close in the first half but turned ugly in the second as the Eagles came away with a 40-0 win holding Douglas to under 100 yards in total offense on the night.
In the first three conference games this season Cholla has outscored its opponents 163-0 – two of the wins however came against Cholla and Rio Rico who have a combined 1-11 record between them.
The Bulldogs attempted to show some offensive deception on their opening series. Joel Bello took the opening kickoff and was one Santa Rita player away from scoring only to be tripped up.
Douglas came out in a wildcat no huddle formation. Two illegal motion penalties on the opening series prevented it from being more effective. In the end the Bulldogs punted the ball over to Santa Rita who proceeded to march from its own 35 into Douglas territory eventually scoring on a 25-yard field goal.
Late in the first quarter the Douglas coaches were victimized by a flag happy female official who saw in necessary to flag the coaches for being inside the playing area of the field. The flag drew protests from the Douglas coaches who were then penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Backed up to their own seven-yard line, quarterback CJ Teran completed a pass to Bello who seemed to come down with his feet in bounds. The back judge ruled however Bello was out of bounds and the Douglas coaches, players and now the fans were in obvious disagreement.
The Bulldogs were able to regroup and moved from their own seven out to their 48 before eventually punting the ball back to Santa Rita. The Eagles took the punt and ran it back 85-yards for a touchdown as Santa Rita led 10-0 at the half.
The third quarter was disastrous for the Bulldogs as Santa Rita scored 21 straight points blowing the game wide open.
One of the scores came off a mishandled punt that was recovered by Santa Rita in the end zone for a score.
The Eagles scored a touchdown and added another field goal in the fourth padding their lead.
The Bulldogs, who threw for almost 400-yards against Nogales, but then saw that number dwindle to 19, last week in the win over Santa Rita, had zero yards passing Friday night. Teran was 0 for 11 with an interception. AJ Acosta was 0 for 2.
Hunter Long led the Bulldogs ground game with 13 carries for 42 yards. Hector Grijalva had seven for 38, Bello nine for seven and Teran two for seven.
After the game Douglas’ head coach Dick Keith said he felt the first half his team did a good job of keeping with Santa Rita and the one punt return they had for a score was because of a missed coverage.
“Santa Rita is really a fine football team,” he said. “Defensively, that first half, I was so proud of what we did. Then their horses went to work the second half and they are quick, they’re fast and they are strong.”
Keith was hoping that by opening up in the wildcat formation it may allow his team to control the ball a little bit more and maybe put Santa Rita on its heals.
“It didn’t pan out for us,” he said.
The Bulldogs, 4-2 overall, 2-1 in league play, are now at home for the next two weeks hosting Palo Verde this week and Rio Rico next week on what will be homecoming for the Bulldogs.
Junior varsity
The Douglas JV’s lost to Santa Rita’s JV’s 39-7 Thursday at Douglas High School.
Santa Rita jumped out to a 13-0 lead only to see Douglas score on a one-yard run by Felipe Linares. Alex Pickell’s extra point made the score 13-7.
Santa Rita would go on to lead 19-7 at the half. Three second half scores by the Eagles increased their lead to 39-7.
Douglas’ coach Clint Hill said his team played a decent first half but ran out of gas the second half.
“It was a case of us having too many players go both ways because of low numbers,” Hill said.
The JV’s are on the road Thursday taking on Palo Verde in a 6 p.m. game.
No freshmen score was available from Thursday night.
Comments
to once a bulldog wrote on Oct 23, 2009 2:57 PM:
I call it like it is. "
once a bulldog wrote on Oct 19, 2009 1:01 PM:
and today through their efforts and those of the team are on the verge of once again making the playoffs, which I wwill say 8they have not been since Keith was the offensvie coordinator for Necas. QUIT..... who in their right mind would want to come into a program such as it was and attempt to revive it oonly some one with more character than you will ever reach if you lived a thousand life times. "
quiter wrote on Oct 17, 2009 9:59 PM: