Muldrow Bulldogs’ way on Senior Night as they lost their District 3A-3 home game to the Tulsa Holland Hall Dutch by a score of 19-8 on Thursday night at Marty Rogers Field.
“You want to go out on a high note,” Muldrow coach Logan Coatney said. “You want to give your seniors the opportunity to leave their home field for the last time with a win. It (the loss) was a tough, bitter pill to swallow. I’m extremely proud of this group (of seniors). This is my first group (of seniors) seeing them all the way through (the program). I couldn’t ask for a better group of young men.”
The defense for the Bulldogs (4-4 overall, 1-4 in district play) played well, but it was the ’Dogs’ offense which sputtered.
The Bulldogs committed four turnovers, two interceptions and two fumbles.
“The defense came out and did a great job,” Coatney said. “We only gave up seven points in the first half. We gave up 12 points in the second half. The defense stepped up and did an outstanding job. That team is averaging 46 to 47 points a ball game, and we held them to 19 points. In my opinion, our defense did its job. Our defense was put in some bad spots. We didn’t get the ball going offensively. We had some costly turnovers. We had multiple opportunities, but we just seemed to get in our own way. We just lacked some things going our way.”
The Dutch (7-1, 4-1) scored on their opening possession to begin the game for the only score of the first half as Holland Hall led 7-0 at the half.
The Dutch scored their second TD, and first of two second-half touchdowns, to take a 13-0 lead with 4:17 left in the third quarter.
The ’Dogs tried to cut into their deficit, only to see Teague Collins throw one of his two interceptions on the final play of the period.
The Dutch took advantage of the takeaway as they went 53 yards to take a 19-0 lead.
On the ensuing drive, the Bulldogs finally got on the board. Thanks to a 34-yard pass from Collins to Jermauree Palmer and a 17-yard run by DeShawn Willson, the ’Dogs found the end zone on a 7-yard TD run by Collins. After a penalty on the conversion by the Dutch, the Bulldogs went for two points, with Gabe Miller taking it in off a snap in the wildcat formation. The ’Dogs trailed 19-8 with 6:03 left to play.
The Bulldogs got a successful onside kick as Palmer wrestled the ball away from a Dutch player at the Holland Hall 26-yard line to set the ’Dogs up to cut further into the Dutch’s lead.
However, two plays later, the Dutch recovered a fumble at their own 17-yard line with 5:48 remaining in the game.
The Bulldogs got the ball back with 4:54 left in the game at their own 39-yard line, but another fumble recovered by the Dutch at their own 33-yard line with 3:51 remaining to play sealed the deal as the ’Dogs never got the ball back.
The Bulldogs will travel to meet the Stigler Panthers at 7 p.m. next Friday.
