Bulldogs beat New Waverly 33-30

By LINDA JACOBSContributing WriterCORRIGAN—A couple of key turnovers, including a pass interception by freshman LaKendrick Moore that led to a Corrigan-Camden touch-down and a late fumble recov-ery would help to secure a hard fought 33-30 win against Dew-eyville in the District 12-2A opener Friday night.The Bulldogs fought and clawed all game long against the feisty Pirates. The game went back and forth in the fi rst half with numerous lead chang-es and just a slight 19-16 edge for the Bulldogs at the break.The two turnovers in the second half, including a Chris Taylor fumble recovery with 1:52 left in the game would lock up the hard earned victory as Corrigan evens their overall record to 3-3 and starts their district campaign off at 1-0. “It was a win and that’s all that matters right now,” stated Corrigan head coach Seven Armstrong, who had to go without a few starters Friday night because of injuries.“We’re just banged up right now, but the kids fought their tails off. When you’re banged up and you come in and play a physical football team, it’s hard on you.“That’s a good football team. That’s probably the most im-proved football team I’ve seen in one year.” The Pirates were indeed a much improved ball-club than the one that posted a 1-4 mark in district a year ago.The Bulldogs have been bit by the injury bug this year, more so than in past years. Joining Andrew Harvey on the sideline, who is out for the season with a knee injury, was senior Chris Caballero and ju-niors Cody Rogers and Raheim Jones. Hopefully the three of them will be back in the lineup next week when the ‘Dogs trav-el to New Waverly for a District 12-2A matchup. Addison Kirkland suffered a concussion and did not play most of the second half.“We’re banged up bad,” said Coach Armstrong. “We’re get-ting a little more healthy every-day and hopefully we’ll get a couple back next week. We’re just kind of scratching where it itches right now.“We had some young kids step up tonight and just did a great job,” said Armstrong, who commended LaKendrick Moore on his pass intercep-tion and the running of Malyk Johnson, both recently moved up from the JV squad. “The freshman (Moore) made a great play on the interception,” Arm-strong said. the fireworks in the opening frame when he scored on a 46-yard run, as both teams would combine to score 35 points in the opening frame. Johnson lat-er returned a kickoff 76 yards for a Bulldog touchdown. “He did a great job stepping up to-night trying to fill some shoes,” said Armstrong.Those plays, along with some big runs by Keegan Mitchell, who scored twice in the second half, plus a 41-yard touchdown pass from Haden Armstrong to Dylan Parker was just enough to offset a Pirate offense that ran for 304 yards, while their defense held the Bulldogs to 182 yards rushing.“They had a lot of people packed in there and when they pack them in, you’ve got to be able to go and catch a football and we got a touchdown pass off it.“We need to continue to get better throwing and catching the football and doing the things that we do,” said Armstrong. “We’ve got to believe in what we do and continue plodding along.”New WaverlyThe Bulldogs will have an-other tough assignment Fri-day night when they travel to New Waverly to battle a tough Bulldog team that’s currently 5-1 overall and 1-0 in district following a 34-27 win over Groveton in their district opener last week.New Waverly rushed for 308 yards and added 92 yards pass-ing in their win over the Indi-ans.“They’re going to run the football right at us and they’re also going to spread the field out on us. They do a little bit of both,” said Armstrong.“We’ve got to be prepared and be ready to do what needs to be done and just play a solid football game against a solid football team.”Scoring drivesFirst quarterCorrigan--Malyk Johnson scored a 46-yard touchdown run with 11:15 on the clock. Drive covered 47 yards and two plays. Haden Armstrong booted extra point for 7-0 lead.Deweyville—Ryan Collins scored on a 73-yard run with 10:57 on the clock. Drive was 73 yards and one play. QB Cody Dupuy ran for the 2-point con-version to give the Pirates an 8-7 lead.Corrigan—Dylan Parker hauled in a 41-yard touchdown pass from Haden Armstrong with 7:12 on the clock. Drive covered 53 yards in seven plays. A 2-point pass play was incom-plete. Corrigan regained the lead 13-8.Deweyville—QB Cody Du-puy scored on a 2-yard run to cap a 43 yard scoring drive in 10 plays at the 1:51 mark of open-ing quarter. Ryan Collins scored the 2-point run to give the Pi-rates a 16-13 lead.Corrigan—Malyk Johnson returned the ensuing kickoff 76 yards for a Bulldog touchdown with 1:39 still left in the first quarter. Haden Armstrong was wide left on the point after try, but the ‘Dogs regained the lead, 19-16.Ben Martinez recovered a Pi-rate fumble at the Bulldog 13 to halt a potential threat with 7:40 left in the second frame.Second halfDeweyville—The Pirates marched 79 yards in 14 plays on the opening possession of the second half, scoring on a four yard run by Collins with 5:07 left in the third quarter. Collins also scored the 2-point conver-sion to regain the lead for the Pirates, 24-19.Corrigan—The Bulldogs an-swered on the following series. They drove the ball 62 yards in five plays and scored on a 42-yard run by Keegan Mitchell with 2:44 left in the third quarter. Mitchell also ran for the 2-point conversion to give the Bulldogs the lead at 27-24.Corrigan—After a pass inter-ception by LaKendrick Moore, the Bulldogs went 27 yards in six plays and scored on a 12 yard run by Mitchell with 11:53 left in the fourth frame. The ex-tra point try failed, but Corrigan was able to take a 2-possession lead at 33-24.Deweyville—After a 63-yard kickoff return by Dupuy on the ensuing series, the Pirates went 34 yards in five plays and scored on an eight yard run by Collins with 9:09 left in the ballgame. A 2-point run was stopped to leave the Bulldogs in the lead, 33-30.The Bulldogs took posses-sion with 9:07 on the clock and held the ball until the 3:28 mark when they failed on fourth down at the Deweyville 32 yard line.The Pirates ran four plays out to the 44 and then connected an 8-yard pass to the Corrigan 48. The receiver was fighting for additional yardage when he was stripped of the ball. Chris Taylor recovered for the Bulldogs with 1:52 left in the game.The ‘Dogs made one first down and was able to run the clock out and preserve a 33-30 victory.