Bulldogs open season ‘safely’

CLARION – The Bulldog football team earned a season-opening win over Clarion-Goldfield-Dows with not one, nor two, but three safeties highlighted in this 18-4 victory.

Coach Andy Bruemmer’s squad got the scoring going with a safety on a tackle by Tate Schmitt of quarterback Christian Gaytan in the second quarter and then the Cowboys got their only points in the fourth quarter on a pair of safeties against the Bulldogs in avoiding the shutout. The first was a snap into the end zone to Cal Heeren that was muffed and then bumped out of the end zone and the next was on a bad snap on a punt deep in the end zone.

“I’ve never been in a game that had a score of 11-4 at one point,” Bruemmer said. “The second one (safety of the Bulldogs), Zach DeVries did a good job of handling the snap, but he tried to roll out and slipped on the grass.”

Bryan Flores returned to the field for the first time in a year after incurring a concussion in the opener in 2019, throwing 5-of-9 passes for 89 yards and no turnovers as well as scrambling for 57 yards and a touchdown.

Mario De La Cruz added a 25-yard touchdown run and Elias Cortez kicked a 25-yard field goal and PAT to account for the scoring.

Defensively, the Bulldogs were all over the Cowboys for six picks of C-G-D quarterbacks Shane Conlon and Gaytan, breaking the school record in a game with two interceptions by Jordan Severs and Marco Guerrero and one each for Logan Pfeffer and Flores.

The previous record was tied for five both in 1981 against Algona and 2014 against Osage.

De La Cruz also came up with a fumble recovery.

“Both defenses were ahead of each teams’ offense,” Bruemmer said. “We had just enough offense to get it down on their end of the field. Were down 2-3 times and couldn’t punch it in. Have to go back and work on and reach deep. We didn’t do anything new or different.”

Pfeffer and Schmitt led the way in sacks of the Cowboy quarterbacks with three, tallying six and a half and five solo stops, respectively. De La Cruz also had 10 total tackles against C-G-D, adding two more sacks.

“I like our fight,” Bruemmer said. “The guys really came out and clicked well together; went through some adversity and handled it well. This group is a really good group as far as sticking together and working hard.”

The Bulldogs (1-0) will play West Fork for the first time in school history. The Warhawks were off last week as their scheduled opponent were quarantining because of COVID-19 and they couldn’t find a replacement. Coach Bruemmer’s team has just one athlete that is expected to be out due to injury, otherwise the Bulldogs are healthy.

“They have film on us and we don’t have film on them because they didn’t play,” Bruemmer said. “It’s interesting because we understand they run the ‘I’ (formation). Coach (James) Perez there is working on the culture for a winning attitude. We have to come out ready to play.”

Bulldogs 18

Clarion-Goldfield-Dows 4

Bulldogs    0       2       9       7        -     18

C-G-D         0       0       0       4        -       4

SECOND QUARTER

H-D – Safety

THIRD QUARTER

H-D – Bryan Flores 1 run (2-pt. conversion fail)

H-D – Elias Cortez 25 FG

FOURTH QUARTER

CGD– Safety.

CGD– Safety.

H-D– Mario De La Cruz 25 run (Cortez kick)

TEAM STATISTICS

                                            H-D           CGD

First downs                           NA             NA

Rushes-yards                   38-57         24-33

Passing                               127              55

Comp-att-int                    7-20-0        5-15-6

Punts-avg.                          7-36           5-35

Fumbles-lost                         1-0             2-1

Penalties-yards                     NA             NA

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING (Att-Yds-TD)– H-D (Bryan Flores 16-57-1, Logan Pfeffer 8-26-0, Mario De La Cruz 2-19-1, Marco Guerrero 3-5-0, Max O’Dell 1-(5)-0, Zach DeVries 1-(8)-0, Cal Heeren 7-(37)-0); CGD (Neven Foss 5-22-0, Trenton Jergenson 8-12-0, Shane Conlon 8-0-0, Christian Gaytan 3-(1)-0. PASSING (Att-Comp-Yds-TD-INT)– H-D (Flores 5-9-87-0-0, Heeren 2-11-40-0-0); CGD (Conlon 4-11-30-0-4, Gaytan 1-4-25-0-2). RECEIVING (Catch-Yds-TD)– H-D (Jordan Severs 2-69-0, De La Cruz 2-43-0, O’Dell 1-9-0, Zayden Erdman 2-6-0); CGD (Mateo Martinez 3-38-0, Jaxon Carpenter 1-17-0, Jergenson 1-0-0). TACKLES (Solo-TFL-Total)– H-D (De La Cruz 7-2-10, Pfeffer 4-3-6.5, Tate Schmitt 5-3-5, Kale Folkerts 1-0-4, Alex Koch 1-0-3, Payton McNealy 2-2-3); CGD (Foss 4-1-8, Bryce Allen 2-0-5.5, Reed Abbas 4-0-5, Kain Nelson 3-3-5, Jergenson 2-0-4, Nik Christopherson 1-1-3.5, Camden Hanson 1-1-3, Cale Kirstein 1-1-2.5). SACKS– H-D (Pfeffer 3, De La Cruz 2, Schmitt 2, McNealy); CGD, None. FUMBLE RECOVERIES– H-D (De La Cruz); CGD, None. INTERCEPTIONS– H-D (Severs 2, Guerrero 2, Pfeffer, Flores); CGD, None.