Bulldogs, what a season! In a semester where we didn’t know if we would have any events…you gave us your all. Thank you for our Friday nights. The spirit. The fans. The performances. We loved it all. And, you outlived the predictions of many.

All good things come to an end, and unfortunately football season came to an end for the Dogs on Friday, Dec. 4 in Nacogdoches at SFASU.

Reviewing the season, in the first round against Splendora, the Bulldogs played at home and won 42-0. On Nov. 20, the Bulldogs traveled to Houston to beat El Campo 24-17. In the 3rd round in Jasper, the Dogs got through a close game against the Hargrave Falcons by a score of 20-17.

“Lindale was the toughest for our team,” senior Brian Brown said.

Fourth round for the dogs was a ‘district championship rematch’ against the Lindale Eagles.

The Dogs went into halftime with the lead, and ended up losing to the eagles 42-56.

This was a much closer game than the score showed. The boys fought until the end, but unfortunately time ran out in the game.

“The competition gets better each week, and we play well or go home,” Head Coach Mike Wood said.

Quarterback Dalton McElyea threw for 5 touchdown passes in the game, 2 to Donovan Adkins, and 1 each to Brian Brown, Jermaine Roney and Cade Pippen.

Running back Tray Epps also had a rushing touchdown for the Dogs. He would have had two, but one was called back due to a holding penalty.

The Bulldogs rallied in the 2nd quarter to take a 21-20 lead but could not hold onto the lead in the second half of the game.

“It’s really exciting to see how our school and community get behind our football team,” Offensive Coordinator Jay Dean said. “Honestly, I feel like we had a great year. With everything that has gone on in 2020 to get to the State Quarterfinals is an awesome achievement. I told some of our players a few weeks ago that good teams play on Thanksgiving and really good teams play in December.”

It was a back and forth game until the 3rd quarter when it went bad for the dogs and Lindale took over.

Unfortunately for the Bulldogs they could never catch up to the Eagles in the fourth quarter. Sadly time ran out and the final whistle blew.

“I think, more than anything, is the fact that we had different guys “step up” each week…I think that our seniors did a great job of leading throughout the play-offs. You could tell it was a special time for them,” Dean said. “I am extremely proud of these young men…there has been so much uncertainty this year, however, they never lost their faith and belief in what we were asking them to do as a football team. Our coaches have been working since the spring on this football season. They never lost sight of where we were going and what we could accomplish.”

The Bulldogs will look to have a different team with the large group of seniors leaving. Some positions that will look different for the Dogs next year include quarterback, offensive line, wide receivers, and some of the defense.

Congrats to the team on an amazing season. This one will be remembered by fans for a while. Good luck to the seniors leaving, and good luck to the team next year. Carry on with Bulldog Pride…through pandemic or whatever comes.

“I would like to tell the coaches thank you for believing in me for these three years, and thank you for teaching me things I needed to know that have made me better over the years,” senior Tray Epps said.