Bowie High football teams go on a scoring offensive By JAKE LINGER Sports Editor
It's been said that football teams can't win a title in the first few weeks of a season, but they certainly could lose it. Bowie High varsity coach Pete Barham has seen his team do a little of both.
Following a season-opening 20-0 win over Laurel, and then a Week 2 7-6 loss at the hands of Bladensburg, Barham needed his Bulldogs to regain focus and find a healthy balance between its Week 1 offense/defense and its Week 2 defensive efforts.
"It's hard to tell where we are right now," said Bowie athletics director Bob Estes. "Where we fit in the playoff picture is kind of tough ... we are young and inexperienced" compared to Eleanor Roosevelt and Suitland.
The High Point players were hoping for Bowie to fall into the inexperienced offensive slumber that the Bulldogs exhibited against Bladensburg - not so much. Bowie won their home opener, 46-0.
High Point managed nothing more than a three-and-out on the team's first possession. The ensuing punt set up Bowie at midfield before junior running back Travis Thomas found the end zone with 8:54 left in the first quarter to give Bowie the 6-0 lead. A two-point conversion attempt failed.
Another lackluster performance from the High Point offense led to another punt and a big return landed the Bulldogs inside the opposing 10-yard line. Bowie scored on first down and followed with another failed conversion attempt.
A nice catch-and-run play on the Bulldogs' third possession gave Bowie a 19-0 lead and from there the hill was just too insurmountable for High Point to climb.
On the ensuing kickoff Bowie recovered a loose ball that was mishandled by the High Point kick returner. Thomas took the ball in for his second score of the game and a BHS 27-0 lead.
Bowie scored on each of its first-half possessions, prompting one Bulldogs fan in the bleachers to comment that the Bowie "defense (is) sitting back with their feet up sipping Gatorade."
The High Point team finally earned a first down with just 2:45 remaining in the opening quarter and trailing Bowie, 27-0. But a stagnant offense just could not get the job done for High Point. On first down a handoff to the running back netted just two yards. Another run on second down actually lost about a yard and then a fumbled snap on third down, but recovered by High Point, set up a fourth-and-long play that went nowhere.
The Bulldogs took over on downs and ended the fist quarter with a Thomas run of four yards. The first half of the second quarter was eaten up by the Bowie offense, who took a 33-0 lead following another Thomas touchdown run. Any hopes that High Point had of mounting a rally were ended when their ensuing first down play resulted in a fumble that was recovered by Bowie. The Bulldogs reached the end zone for the sixth time of the half and led, 39-0, at the end of the half. The best thing to happen to High Point all afternoon was Bowie taking a knee with :10 seconds remaining in the first half, thus ending the misery for High Point.
The first half for the Bulldogs could draw only two knocks against the home team: penalties and failed two-point conversions. And though Barham - like any good coach - will say that his team could have played a little better against High Point, the truth of the matter is that Bowie played a near flawless first half and scoring on each of their possessions. The packed house at Bulldogs Stadium surely helped Bowie sprint toward its first home win of the season.
Estes noted that Barham put his team through some heavy practices after the loss to Bladensburg and made the players work until all the kinks from the previous week had been smoothed over. "I think (Barham) got their attention with that loss," said Estes.
The third quarter nearly came and went before Bowie finally failed to convert a third-down conversion. The ensuing punt also marked the first possession in the game for Bowie that the team failed to score. The Bulldogs are 2-1 on the season and tied with Bladensburg for second place in the 4A division. Roosevelt, Charles. H. Flowers and Suitland are 3-0 and in first place.
Roosevelt will play High Point (0-3) Friday; Northwestern (1-2) will travel to Suitland Saturday while Flowers will face Henry Wise (2-1). The Bulldogs will play at DuVal (1-2) at 2 p.m.
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Over on the JV side of the gridiron, coach Terry Hayes has his Bulldogs positioned in first place with a 3-0 record following a 64-0 dismantling of Bladensburg.
"We started a little slow and we could not get our running game together in the first series," said Hayes, whose team has won each of its three games by way of shutouts.
Getting a better start on their second series, the Bulldogs turned a third-and-long into a Brandon Johnson touchdown.
The rest is history.
Jeremiah Hendy ended the game with two touchdown catches and two interceptions, one which he returned for a "Pick 6."
The remaining scorers for BHS were James Holley and Anthony Murray (1 rush TD each), and Johnson and Scott Smith (1 rush TD; INT for TD).
"The defense played a great game and racked up a bunch of sacks and tackles," said Hayes, but "we are still trying to improve and become a complete football machine."
The BHS JV football team will play DuVal at Bulldogs Stadium Saturday at 9:30 a.m.
