BOILING SPRINGS, SC - After waiting for almost two hours for the game to begin due to lighting delays, the Boiling Springs football team made their home debut on Friday night in front of a large crowd of Bulldog fans.
When the game ended just before midnight it was turnovers and penalties that allowed Mauldin to capture a 20-7 victory over the Bulldogs. "The first thing I want to do is thank the community as they really came out in force tonight and the crowd was electric," said Bulldogs head football coach Matt Reel. "Our kids played hard tonight, we just made a few too many mistakes, mistakes which we can't make and win football games right now." Mauldin got their first score of the game with just under nine minutes in the first quarter when quarterback Emory Watson found Barret Swedin falling backwards into the endzone for a three-yard touchdown pass to take a 7-0 lead. The scoring drive was setup by a Bulldogs fumble at their own thirty-three-yard line to give the Mavericks a short field on their first possession of the night. In the second quarter Mauldin made their lead 14-0 when running back Kelvin Johnson scored from eight yards out at the six-minute mark as the play was setup by a 46-yard run by Johnson after the Bulldogs came up short on a fourth and one play at the Mauldin thirty-six-yard line. Both teams went scoreless in the third quarter, but Mauldin scored first in the fourth quarter at the nine-minute mark on an eighteen-yard run up the middle by Johnson to go up 20-0 after the drive started off of a Boiling Springs interception. At the six-and-a-half-minute mark with the Bulldogs facing a fourth and nine, Boiling Springs sophomore quarterback Lincoln Huskey scrambled for a sixteen-yard gain for a first down and added fifteen more yards on a late hit. After an eight-yard run by running back Javen Chhim put the Bulldogs at the one-yard line they made the score 20-7 on a one-yard touchdown run by senior running back Kam Williams over the left side. With the Bulldogs still trailing, it looked like they had an opening when Bulldogs safety Jared Chinloy intercepted a pass at midfield with just over four minutes to go in the game. The comeback wasn't to be though as on first down the Bulldogs were called for a holding penalty on first down and became a hole they couldn't dig out of on the drive as Mauldin ended the series on a fourth down sack by Jaiden Rainey. Mauldin was led offensively by Kelvin Johnson who ran the ball for 179 yards on twenty-two carries for two touchdowns. Boiling Springs rushed for 104 yards on offense with Javen Chhim leading the way with 41 yards on six carries. Lincoln Huskey led the passing game for the Bulldogs going nine of nineteen for 95 yards. The Bulldogs defense put in a strong performance after being put in tough situations a few times and were led in tackles by Luke Compton with seven tackles followed closely behind by JoJo Barrett with six and a half tackles. Jamelion Miller and Calvin Jackson both had two tackles for loss for the Bulldogs while Kam Foster recovered a fumble and Jared Chinloy had an interception. "Our defense played so hard tonight," said Reel. "I was upset last week because in the second half I didn't think we played as hard as we could but tonight, I told them there was no doubt they played as hard as they could. I was also proud that as a team we kept cheering each other on and we just didn't have enough tonight to get the win." While the Bulldogs fell short of their ultimate goal of a victory, Coach Reel said that he saw improvement from his team and says if they keep working, they'll get the victories. "I'm upset we lost but I'm really proud of how well our kids played tonight," said Reel. "We're better tonight than we were last week and that's our goal each night. I told them a long time ago that this is a marathon and not a sprint, there is no quick fix. We just got to stay together and keep grinding and if we do that the wins will come." Boiling Springs will now turn their attention to rival Chapman, who fell to Byrnes 54-7 on Friday night, when the Bulldogs travel to the Panthers at 7:30 PM on Friday. Comments are closed.
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