Bulldogs blank Canadian in opener, 42-0

A slow start did not prevent Empire from picking up a road win in its season opener as the Bulldogs shutout Canadian, 42-0, last Thursday.

The Empire defense was dominant all game long, holding the home team to three first downs in the game with two coming on Empire penalties.

“The boys played pretty good,” said Brant Hayes, head coach. “We played really well on defense. On offense, we had a few drops and some missed assignments, but you expect that this time of year.”

Hayes thought the three-hour drive also played a part in the sluggish start.

“I figured that was going to happen,” Hayes said. “Some of our guys have never had to travel that far to play a game. We will have some long trips like that in the district games, so hopefully we got it out of our system.”

The coach also thought the team showed tremendous improvement from the scrimmage the week before against Ryan and Bray-Doyle.

“Ryan put it to us, I don’t think the players were expecting that,” Hayes said. “Ryan has a good team.”

The Bulldogs got out to a 28-0 halftime lead before adding two scores in the final two quarters.

“We had a chance to score at the end, but we just took a knee,” Hayes said.

Kamdyn Whetstone opened scoring for Empire with a three-yard run in the first quarter to take a 6-0 lead.

Whetstone would score on defense later in the quarter when he had a 24-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown. Quarterback Bryce Shaver threw a two-point conversion pass to Baylen Jackson for a 14-0 lead.

In the second quarter, Shaver got his first touchdown pass of the season on a five-yard toss to Javi Garcia and a 20-0 lead.

The final score of the half came on a nine-yard run by Whetstone for his third score of the night. A two-point run by Nathan Menga pushed the lead to 28-0.

In the third quarter, Shaver connected with Christian Benitez for a 42-yard score with Shaver then running in the two-point conversion for the 36-0 advantage.

The final score came on a three-yard run by Whetstone.

Empire (1-0) is scheduled to travel to Temple this week, but Hayes said Monday he wasn’t 100 percent certain the game was going to happen because Temple was unsure if they were going to have enough players to field a team.

“If we end  up not playing, we’ll just have a work week and get back on track,” Hayes said.

The Bulldogs are ranked No. 9 in The Oklahoman newspaper Class B poll this week. Hayes does not put a lot of stock in it, but he is happy for his players.

“I like it for the kids,” Hayes said. “VYPE (magazine) gave us some bulletin board material picking us fifth in the district and missing the playoffs. Then MaxPreps has us winning it all. I think the players took that too much to heart when we played Ryan.”

The Canadian game marked the official return of Empire (1-0) to eight-man football after two years of playing 11-man. 

Hayes sees being back in eight-man as a good thing.

“The players are really excited about it,” especially our seniors,” Hayes said. “We won back-to-back district championships the last time we were in eight-man and the seniors were freshmen, so they remember what it was like to be district champs.”

The Bulldogs had finished in fifth place in the district both years in 11-man and missed the playoffs.