Leading by four points going into the final quarter on Friday night in Tiptonville, the Gleason Bulldogs put together a productive - and time consuming - drive that saw the Dawgs march 84 yards over the span of eight minutes en-route to a game-sealing touchdown that secured their 30-18 win over the Lake County Falcons in Region 7-1A action.
    After the third quarter ended with a Lake County punt, the Bulldogs began the final 12 minutes with a fresh set of downs at their own 16-yard line. It took only one play for running back Cody Ezell to make an impact as he made his way through the Lake County defense for a 20-yard gain. A pair of Alex Verdell runs covered 14 yards and picked up another set of downs at midfield. Runs of three yards by Verdell and four yards from Zach Wallace led to another first down being picked up by Verdell with a four-yard banging run. Verdell then took the Dawgs inside the Lake County 30-yard line with back-to-back runs of four and seven yards. Ezell took the ball next for a four-yard pickup leading to three straight runs by Verdell for a combined 18 yards, taking the Bulldogs down to the Lake County 6-yard line. A five-yard run by Wallace put the Bulldogs on the 1-yard line and, after a half-yard penalty on the Falcons, Wallace got into the end zone for the score. The first two-point attempt by the Bulldogs failed, but a penalty was called again on the Falcons, giving Gleason another try at the conversion. On the second attempt, Shadow Roney picked up the two-pointer to give the Bulldogs a 30-18 lead with four minutes left in the game.
    The Bulldogs defense was able to force a turnover on downs on the next Lake County possession. Gleason then utilized its running game to seal the win.
    The Bulldogs got on the board early in the first frame. Though they started with good field position, the Dawgs faced a fourth-down situation on their first possession. But, Gleason was able to overcome that adversity, as Nicky Spain found an open Wallace for a 39-yard touchdown pass. The two-point attempt failed, but Gleason held a 6-0 lead after the first possession of the game.
    Lake County evened the score up in the second frame as a 22-yard pass from Sam Hays to Ricky Boyd was the key play in the scoring drive that ended with a two-yard Boyd run to tie the score at 6-6 with 8:57 left in the first half.
But, Gleason was able to answer right back. With a 3rd and two at their own 29-yard line, Verdell broke free for a 60-yard run down the sideline to take the Bulldogs down to the Lake County 11-yard line. From there, Wallace took it the rest of the way with an 11-yard scoring run. Spain then found Verdell on the two-point conversion to give Gleason a 14-6 lead with 7:11 left in the half.
    The Falcons got the final points of the first half. After a Gleason interception, the Falcons took only four plays to get into the end zone as Boyd scored on a nine-yard run to cut the Bulldog lead to 14-12 at the half.

(Read the rest of this story in this week's edition of the Dresden Enterprise!)

    Dresden’s Lions might have lost another game last Friday night, but to members of the team, they achieved a victory of sorts by scoring their first touchdown since October 2007, when the Lions last put points on the gridiron scoreboard.
    The University School of Jackson Bruins handily won the contest 47-20 over Dresden by scoring four first quarter touchdowns to lead 28-0 going into the second quarter.
The Bruins’ TDs came on a 24 yard run by Eric Dietz, a 67-yard pass interception return by Dusty Bright, a 27-yard pass reception by Danny Smigielski, and a five-yard run by Dietz.
    In the second quarter of play, USJ added a fifth TD to their tally on a one-yard run by Tanner Sauls with 8:05 remaining in the first half. Will Purcell kicked the extra point in each of the first four touchdowns by the Bruins and on the fifth TD with the score standing at 34-0, USJ elected for quarterback Jake Overbey to take a knee on the points after attempt thereby preventing the mercy rule from going into effect. Under the mercy rule, when a team obtains a 35-point lead, the clock does not stop except for time-outs and following touchdowns, thereby bringing the game to a quick conclusion.
    Following the fifth TD, USJ began to substitute heavily on both offense and defense thereby making the game more competitive.
    The Lions kicked off to USJ to open the second half. The kick was picked up by USJ’s Dusty Bright at the Bruins 16-yard line and ran the ball back 84 yards for the sixth USJ TD of the evening. Purcell kicked the extra point to give the Bruins a 41-0 lead with 11:42 remaining in the third quarter.
USJ then kicked off to Dresden and the Lions started their first offensive series of the second half at their own 24-yard line. Ten plays later, Dresden scored its first touchdown of the game and of the season on a seven yard run by Zach Garner up the center of the line. Dylan Nanney kicked the points after attempt to give the Lions seven points on the scoreboard. The touchdown sparked jubilation among members of the Dresden Lions team and the small crowd of fans who had traveled to Jackson to watch the game.

(Read the rest of this story in this week's edition of the Dresden Enterprise!)