On Sept. 13, the Dunbar Bulldogs faced off against the Fredrick Douglass Broncos. Both teams had been preparing for a week leading up to the match-up for the other and had specific things they did to get ready for it.

“We’ve been focusing on reading our keys and making sure we’re not too focused on what the backs are doing,” #6 Jacob Greene said. “We react and play as a team and we play together.”

Before the game, both coaches were warming up their teams and were expecting different things from them and wanted to see key areas of improvement from them.

“We need to not turn the ball over, don’t let ourselves beat ourselves. We’re playing a pretty good opponent tonight we don’t need to help them out any,” Coach Wes Johnson said.

“We need to just relax and work on us. We don’t need to play any harder just because it’s them. We just need to do what we need to do and play our responsibility the best we can.”

The head coach of Fredrick Douglass, Brian Landis, was looking for his team to fix some errors from their previous match-ups.

“We didn’t execute very well last week, so the emphasis this week is to execute and do your job and do it with perfection,” Coach Landis said. “We have to get better offensively of getting out of those 3rd downs we didn’t convert last week. Defensively I was pleased with some of the things we did, but we have to tackle a little bit better.”

Once the game’s start time was delayed until 7:07 due to the heat, the Broncos won the coin toss and elected to receive.

On the opening kick, a Douglass player knocked the ball out of bounds at his own 26-yard line which is where their offense started their first drive. On their first play #8 Josh McClurg ran for 8 yards and gave a surge of energy into his side’s stands and his team. Douglass started moving the ball with ease until they tried to hit a long pass.

Dunbar’s secondary stepped up to break up the pass, followed by the rest of the team to pin Douglass into a 3rd and 8.

#8 McClurg dropped back to pass and completed a throw for 4 yards that were marked short. But there was a penalty on the play.

Dunbar was called for roughing the passer which gave the Broncos 15 yards and a fresh set of downs.

The Broncos ended up capping the drive off with a touchdown run from #8 McClurg and after the PAT went through the uprights the score was 7-0 Broncos with 6:06 left in the 1st quarter.

On the kick #21 Mario Paul brought the ball out to the Dunbar 20-yard line. Early in the drive #18 Jake Smith connected with #2 Mitchell Joseph for a 21-yard pickup.

A few short plays later #2 Joseph hit a big 18-yard run that brought the ball to the Douglass 39-yard line. The Bulldogs continued to the ball well but were stopped in the Broncos’ red zone. #28 Jason O’Hara came onto the field for the field goal attempt but was blocked by a Douglass defender.

The Broncos were unable to do anything off of the block and went 3 and out.

#1 Jamarcus Robinson brought the ball to the 50-yard line on the punt and the clock expired on the 1st quarter leaving the score 7-0 Broncos.

Dunbar came out swinging at the start of the 2nd quarter.

#18 Smith completed a big pass to #3 Howard Jackson and a Broncos Defender were called for a horse-collar which gave the Bulldogs 1st and 10 from the Broncos 14-yard line. Dunbar was unable to do anything yet again in the red zone, and they turned the ball over on downs.

The game became one-sided for the rest of the half.

The Broncos scored 4 more times before the end of the half. The 1st came from a run by #20 Darius Neal, the 2nd came on a 50-yard pass from #8 McClurg to #12 Dane Key, the 3rd came on another pass from #8 McClurg to #12 Key, and the 4th came on a pass from #8 McClurg to #83 Thomas Howard.

During this time the Bulldogs were unable to do anything offensively or defensively. They went into the half down 36-0, but the game plane remained the same.

We were playing very well with them into the second quarter and took a sack and didn’t score on that drive and it took the wind out of our sails, but we just have to keep competing and get mentally tougher.

“We just have to keep competing and not worry about bad mistakes,” Coach Johnson said. “We were playing very well with them into the second quarter, and then we took a sack and didn’t score on that drive so it took the wind out of our sails…”

The 2nd half would be all running clock due to the lopsided scoreboard.

Dunbar got the ball on the Douglass 48-yard line. The Bulldogs were unable to capitalize on the good field position and ended up turning it over on downs.

Douglass marched the field and capped off their drive with a run from #20 Neal for a touchdown and fails on a 2-point conversion making the score 42-0 with 5:49 left in the 3rd quarter.

Dunbar was unable to do anything on their next drive and ends the 3rd quarter with a punt, the score 42-0 with Douglass on top. They put together a few big plays on the ground from #3 Camron Dunn and capped off their drive with a touchdown from #32 Davaun Gidron.

After the PAT went good the score was 49-0 with Douglass on top and this is how things remained until the end of the game.

Up Next: The Bulldogs host the West Jessamine Colts on Sept. 20.