It was a rough night for the Trenton Bulldogs on Friday as they were blasted 50-6 by the Higginsville Huskers.
Trenton came out and was able to find a little success on the offensive side of the ball in the first quarter, but that was it. Trenton got a touchdown from Dalton Preston on a 32-yard run to cut the lead to 8-6, but it was all downhill from that point. The Bulldogs failed to get in on the two-point try and Higginsville literally ran away the rest of the contest. The lead grew to 43-6 by halftime and Higginsville tacked on seven more in the third to give the contest its final score of 50-6.
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“They were very athletic and they took advantage of their strength,” Trenton Head Coach Wes Croy said. “I thought any time they had us in a one-on-one situation, they won a large majority of those battles and that led to a lot of long scores. We didn’t play as well as we thought we would. We thought we had a solid week in practice, but we didn’t do a very good job of translating that into what we needed to do on Friday night.”
Higginsville’s numbers were off the charts as the Huskers’ took advantage of the Trenton secondary, throwing for 333 yards. The Huskers added 133 yards on the ground, giving them a total of 466 yards of offense, nearly twice the amount of Trenton’s 252 yards.
“They are a good team and we knew that going in and they are an athletic team and we knew that going in,” Croy said. “We didn’t do nearly enough to control them.”
The Bulldogs weren’t able to do much in the game, however, they were able to get their running game back on track after being held to just 80 yards in the previous week. Trenton collected 212 rushing yards with an attack led by Clay Oneal and Preston. Both finished with 80-plus yards in the game.
“We did run the ball efficiently, although, probably 60 or 70 of those yards came on our second drive that we scored the touchdown on,” Croy said. “We had two long runs by Dalton on that drive. We need to do a better job of stringing runs together and being more consistent.”
Turnovers were a big factor in the outcome of the contest. Trenton turned the ball over five times against the Huskers, twice on interceptions and three times on fumbles.
“Turnovers, right now, are a big part of the issues we are having offensively,” Croy said. “We haven’t done a very good job taking care of the football. That is what got us in trouble last year and that is what has gotten us in trouble over the past three weeks. We have to do a better job of that if we are to have success in districts.”
The loss is the third in a row for the Bulldogs and drops their season record below .500 for the first time since the week one loss to South Shelby. At 3-4, and coming off the worst loss of the season, the Bulldogs are a long way away from where they were following the Putnam County win at C.F. Russell Stadium three weeks ago. That isn’t the way the Bulldogs had hoped to come rolling into district action.
The Bulldogs open district play next week in St. Joseph, facing the LeBlond Golden Eagles. At 0-7. LeBlond doesn’t appear to be much of a threat. However, a tough schedule disguises how good the Golden Eagles actually are. LeBlond fell by just one score last week against Midland Empire Conference opponent Cameron.
“It’s going to be tough,” Croy said. “We watched LeBlond on film and they are a good team. They are 0-7 and have lost 19 in a row, but if they had our schedule, they would be a three- or four-win team. They play in the MEC and they have played competitive in the MEC this year. They are one of the most improved teams in northern Missouri. I know people are going to look at their record and find that laughable, but you watch them on film or talk to the teams they have played already this year and those coaches will tell you how far those kids have come this year.”
Trenton and LeBlond will kick off at 7 p.m. from Eagles Field in St. Joseph.
“Our biggest thing is we are coming off a pretty sobering defeat and they are coming off a defeat where they did a lot of things right and almost beat Cameron,” Croy said. “Emotionally, they are going to be more than ready to play and we need to find some way to get to that point this week. This is not the same LeBlond team we have seen the last three seasons.”