Quitman dropped a heartbreaker Friday night at New Diana falling 20-18 in a game that the Bulldog defense rose to the occasion, holding the Eagles in check most of the evening. A pair of fumbles and a kick-off return hurt the Bulldog effort. 

The Bulldog defense held New Diana to just three first downs the entire game, none in the second half. “Our kids played hard and did a good job on defense. Both the defensive and offensive lines did what they were supposed to do,” Head Coach Shane Webber said. “Our linebackers did a good job stopping the run. They only had 90 yards total offense for the game. After going through some adversity our kids kept coming back and I was proud of that.”

A special team breakdown which New Diana took advantage of in the second half was the difference. After the Bulldogs ate up nearly six minutes to start the second half on a 13-play, 75-yard scoring drive bringing the score to 13-12, the Eagles ran the ensuing kick-off back 80 yards to give New Diana a 20-12 lead.

In that long drive, the Bulldogs may have found a dependable ground game led by Mikey Pickering who had 56 of the 75 yards on the scoring drive. Pickering ended the night with 167 yards on 23 carries averaging seven yards per tote. 

The Bulldogs came through with another sustained drive in the final quarter going 59 yards in 10 plays. The touchdown came after quarterback Kameron Crockett ran five yards and fumbled at the goal line, but the errant pigskin fell in the hands of Ethan Presley for the score. Once again, the Bulldogs were unable to convert the point after, leaving the score 20-18 with 4:41 left in the contest. In that last scoring drive, Crockett had 24 rushing yards while Pickering added 23 yards and Hunter Jacobs tacked on eight more. 

The Bulldogs got scores earlier from Carson Dickens and Luke Williams on short runs after long drives.

For the night the Bulldogs had 379 yards on offense.

“All of our backs ran well,” Webber said. “We didn’t have a single back who averaged less than four yards a carry.”

The game came down to the final seconds when Quitman blocked an Eagle punt with 12 seconds left. A Quitman player briefly had control of the ball but New Diana fell on it. The Eagles took a knee and the game was over.

The Bulldogs will host Big Sandy Friday night at Bud Moody Field with a 7:30 p.m. kick-off.

“We expect them to be ready. Coach Minter (Larry) always does a good job over there and he will have his kids ready,” Webber noted. “They have some talent in their skill positions. They like to move the ball quickly and they snap the ball about every 12 to 15 seconds when they are on offense.”

Webber remains optimistic about the season. “We plan on going 3-0 our next three games and that will make us 3-1 going into district play,” Webber added. 

The Bulldogs open district play Sept. 23 at home against Grand Saline.