The Tioga Bulldogs varsity football team bounced back from their loss to Muenster in Week 8 by slaying the Chico Dragons 72-0 on Oct. 16.
The Bulldogs dominated the Dragons in all three phases of the game, piling up over 500 yards of offense and 10 touchdowns while their defense kept Chico out of the end zone for the entirety of the contest.
"It's going to take a few more wins to get over that Muenster game, but this was the first step,” said Zach Birdwell, Tioga athletic director and head football coach. “Our motto the whole week was to refocus and respond. Our refocusing was Monday through Thursday, and the response was on Friday.”
And respond the Bulldogs did, with returner Quesyn Arrington finding a crease in the Dragons' kickoff team for a 60-yard house call on the game’s opening kickoff, putting Tioga up 8-0 after a successful 2-point conversion.
Tioga got the ball back after a three-and-out by Chico’s offense and only needed two plays to score again when quarterback Camden Stephens found Arrington open in the corner of the end zone for a 21-yard touchdown, extending their lead to 14-0.
The Bulldogs’ offense got the ball right back after recovering an onside kick and got into the end zone for the third time on the night with a short rushing touchdown by Stephens, pushing Tioga’s lead to 20-0.
Wideout Jaxson Hurst scored the Bulldogs’ next touchdown when he carried a push pass from Stephens into the end zone from 8 yards out, making the score 28-0 after a successful 2-point conversion.
Chico’s offense gave the ball right back to Tioga with a fumble on the first play of its next drive, and the Bulldogs capitalized on the turnover when Stephens connected with Hurst for a 20-yard touchdown pass, giving Tioga a 36-0 lead.
The Bulldogs continued to pour on the points with touchdown catches from running back Jake David, receiver Kyson Kirkland, Hurst and an interception returned for a score by linebacker Raul Chavez, sealing the 72-0 victory.
Stephens led the Bulldogs through the air, completing 23 of 25 attempts for 361 yards and 6 touchdowns, while Hurst and Arrington operated as his top targets, combining for 217 yards receiving and 5 scores.
Birdwell highlighted the play of multiple position groups.
“We lost one of our guys, Kooper Vandagriff against Muenster, and Anibal Becerra and Raiden Washington stepped up and put on a how from the get-go,” he said. “Calan Sweeney took another step forward in his role, and both of our quarterbacks got in there and rolled. It was great to see both those guys come in and operate at an efficient level, and it was really good to see our backups and junior varsity guys get in and fly around on defense and special teams.”
The win evens Tioga’s district record at 1-1, but Birdwell said the Bulldogs are viewing the remaining contests on their schedule one week at a time.
“Coming into district, our goal was to win the championship, but we no longer control that, so we’ve refocused our goals on winning the next four games,” he said. “If anything else happens, that’d be great, but that’s out of our control, so we’re taking things week by week, and we have a big one this week against Alvord. We had a chance to beat them last year and ultimately win the district championship and had them take that from us at the end, so this is a big game for us this week.”
