The Quitman Bulldogs finally got to open regular season play in front of a sparse crowd on a humid and hot Friday night. Quitman fell to Bonham 57-19 in a game that saw its share of big plays and early season turnovers by both teams.

Bonham was a replacement on the schedule for a Cumby team unable to play due to COVID-19 problems. The majority of the Bulldogs had to see action on offense and defense and they eventually just wore out by the game’s end, but it was not without a fight from Quitman’s young team.

Head Coach Bryan Oakes found some bright spots from the Bulldog effort.

“We have to lick our wounds and continue to move forward,” he said. “This group of young men will work hard and they will learn from experience as the season goes on. We saw some good things and we saw things we need to work on and correct. We ran the ball well and our offensive line had a solid effort.”

Quitman can move the football on the ground as they ran tough against the Class 3A, Divison I Purple Warriors. The Bulldogs got 162 yards on 22 carries from running back Wyatt Hightower. The speedy Hightower averaged nearly eight yards a carry and also played a big role on defense. Quarterback Gavin Oakes ran the ball 16 times for 140 yards, also averaging over eight yards per tote. 

The Bulldogs are not large in numbers or size this year, and will depend on underclassmen to come through.

“We have four seniors on offense, that’s it,” Oakes said. “We have two sophomores starting on the offensive line and one sophomore starting as a receiver and the rest juniors.”

It looked like the Bulldogs would take an early lead with just under seven minutes in the opening quarter. Hightower took a hand off from Oakes and behind great blocking took the ball almost to the end zone, but a great defensive play by Bonham caused a fumble out of bounds resulting in a touchback and the Warriors getting the ball.

“It was simply a ‘great effort’ play by one of their kids. He reached in and caused the fumble,” Oakes said.

Bonham took an 8-0 lead on a 24-yard run and two-point conversion. The Bulldogs went three and out on their next possession. Bonham scored on the first play of the next possession on a 60-yard run a minute later and took a 15-0 lead near the end of the quarter.

Bonham added another score on a short five yard run by quarterback Mason Rodriguez giving the Purple Warriors a 23-0 lead at the half. Bonham stretched their lead to 30-0 on another running play, this one for 28 yards. Another Bonham score made it 36-0 with just fewer than four minutes to go in the third quarter.

The Bulldogs took the ball and methodically moved down the field behind the running of Hightower and Oakes. Facing a fourth down and six yards to go at the Bonham 39-yard line, Oakes hit junior wide-receiver Alex Burman, who made the catch and faked out a defender while racing the rest of the way for a score with 14 seconds left in the third quarter. That made it a 36-6 game going into the final quarter.

The Bulldogs got the ball back after Ty Holland recovered a fumble. Oakes made a run for 44 yards to the Bonham 25, and two plays later Oakes took it in from 22 yards out making it a 36-12 game with 9:24 to go. 

The Bulldogs came up short on an onside kick and Bonham scored on the next play on a 50-yard run to make it 43-12. Another scoring run from Rodriquez of Bonham made it a 50-12 game. 

The Bulldogs continued to fight back scoring on a 28-yard run by Ford Tannebaum making it 50-19. Bonham added one more score to make it the final tally of 57-19.

The Bulldogs will face Scurry-Rosser, who will be playing their first game, this Friday with a 7:30 p.m. kick-off at Bud Moody Stadium. Quitman will host Queen City Sept. 11 before playing their first road game at Hawkins Sept. 18. Quitman will open district play at home against Arp Sept. 25.