The Quitman Bulldogs held their own at Winona Friday night before falling to the Wildcats 26-6. The loss dropped the Bulldogs to 0-2 in district action and 0-6 for the year. 

Game officials kept busy tossing penalty flags and continually re-setting the clock throughout the game. During the contest on three occasions off-setting penalties cost the Bulldogs over 70 yards in offense. In the first half alone Quitman was called for 10 penalties and Winona five. 

“I have to say I was really proud of the effort our kids gave us Friday night,” Head Coach Bryan Oakes said. “They worked their tails off on both sides of the ball. The defense played really well and some of our kids had their best game on that side of the ball. Our secondary did a great job all night.” 

Brennan Miller, Ethan Reynolds, Gavin Oakes, Ford Tannebaum, Wyatt Hightower, Garin Kisinger and Alex Burman all had solid defensive games. The Wildcat passing game was shut down by the Bulldog secondary.

Winona got on the scoreboard early with a fumble recovery in the end zone to take a 6-0 lead with 10:03 to go in the opening quarter. 

The Bulldogs stopped a Winona drive early in the second quarter by blocking a field goal attempt from 25 yards. Quitman came back with an interception by Ford Tannebaum. He scored a TD  from two yards away to knot the score at 6-6 with 7:44 left in the half.

Winona made it a 13-6 game a couple of minutes later on short run with just under six minutes to go in the half. Quitman took the kick off and used 11 plays to march to the Wildcat 16 yard line, but an interception return by Winona took the ball back to the Quitman 40-yard line. Two plays later, a 30-yard run gave Winona a 20-6 lead with just 1:21 left in the first half. 

The second half was a defensive struggle with neither team able to get much going on offense. Winona  scored one more time on an 18-yard run by the quarterback to make it the final tally of 26-6.

In other district action, Harmony dismantled Grand Saline 59-7 and Troup took a 31-0 win over close rival Arp.

This week, Quitman is at home against Harmony. The Eagles are 3-2 for the year and 1-0 in district action.

“You know when you play Harmony you will meet a good fundamental football team,” Oakes said. “They have lost a couple of games this year, but they are still Harmony, and we know we have our work cut out for us. I’m really proud of the way our guys keep coming back and working every week. That’s what we will do this week in practice is work hard.”