Earle crushes Yellowjackets

Earle crushes Yellowjackets

The Earle Bulldogs found little resistance this week, earning their first home victory of the season in dominating fashion

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The Earle Bulldogs (2-1 overall) made easy work of the Mountain View Yellowjackets (0-3) in Earle this past Friday, handing the Yellowjackets a 66-0 loss.

The first half was even more lopsided than the final score, with Earle holding a 42-0 advantage over Mountain View after two quarters of play.

Leading the Bulldogs in that dominating half, quarterback Gerry Bohannon completed 11 of 16 pass attempts for 307 yards and four touchdowns.

Earle head coach Albert Coleman said Bohannon looked good in his first full game this season at 100 percent health as Bohannon nursed a sore hamstring through the first two weeks. However, despite Bohannon’s ability to break the pocket, the 64, 215 pound quarterback didn’t record a single rushing attempt, instead showing off his arm in the Bulldog’s dominating victory.

“We literally told him that hey for this one game let’s just sit in the pocket and throw the ball,” Coleman said. “And, that’s what he did. I’d say for the most part, everything was working… He showed that he is very capable of just sitting back there in the pocket and making big things happen.”

Hauling in two of Bohannon’s three touchdown tosses was Ojohsua Bunton who reeled in five catches for 135 total yards on the night. Bunton also contributed a rushing touchdown in the offensive explosion for the Bulldogs. Though Bohannon and Bunton are both certainly capable of carrying Earle on the ground, the Bulldog’s ground game this past Friday was left to a carry-by-committee approach with backup running back Quinlen Allen leading the way, rushing the ball six times for 105 yards and two touchdowns. Also seeing carries out of the Earle backfield were Anthony White, Ojohsua Bunton and starting back Jacquez Gray who totaled 301 yards through the first two weeks.

“It was by committee,” Coleman said. “We spread them out and hit the edges on them then we hit them up the middle and by committee we did pretty well.”

Not to be overlooked by the offensive onslaught, Earle’s defense recorded it’s first shutout of the season by holding the Yellowjackets scoreless.

Seemingly covering the entire field, Cordell Chase led the Bulldogs defense in stops with 16 tackles.

Also playing huge roles for Earle in pitching the shutout, according to Coleman, were corner back Treyvon Young and nose guard Jaylon Coopwood.

“Jaylon Coopwood gave all he had in the first half,” Coleman said. “He gave all he had in the first half and we rested him… But, that’s what we need. We need to go places and be able to pitch a shutout.”

Coleman says that the shutout performance has pushed his defense’s confidence to new heights.

“It’s through the roof,” Coleman said. “Right before the game we kept defense in and we talked about the goals. And our goals weren’t the typical goals of being under so many points… What we ended up doing was the defensive goal was no first downs. We took it all the way down to a minimal.

We do not want to give them any first downs at all. Can we do it? And Mountain View may have had four first downs the whole game and two of them we gave them off penalties.”

The Bulldogs look to pack up their momentum and take it with them on the road this week as Earle travels to Salem, Arkansas to battle the Greyhounds (2-1). Kickoff this Friday in Salem is slated for 7:00 p.m.

By Collins Peeples