Bulldogs looking for answers

The North Bay Bulldogs completed the 1st half of the season Saturday night on the road in Oshawa and came out on the losing end of a 40 – 0 game. This marks the worst beginning to a season in a number of years as the 1 – 3 Bulldogs try to figure out how to fix what’s wrong. “I guess we have an opportunity to put together a memorable comeback in the second half of a season” said Head Coach Marc Mathon.

Special Teams breakdowns, penalties and untimely mistakes started the downturn for that Bulldogs in the game. Although the Bulldogs’ running game was productive, it wasn’t enough to overcome the Hawkeyes’ offense. The Hawkeyes converted 3 3rd downs in the 1st quarter drive covering 80 yards to open the scoring.

Down 7 – 0 the Dogs looked to get even but the Hawkeyes extended their lead to 14 – 0 with a 57 yard punt return on a breakdown in coverage on the punt team. Before the end of the half a questionable close interference call gave the Hawkeyes a third down conversion to set them up on the Dogs’ 25 yard line and Chris Foster was able to direct his offense in from there to make the score 21 – 0 at half time.

“At half time we felt we could rely on our running game to get us 3 scores and a good break to get us the lead if our defense could hold. We felt that although the game was getting rough, we could grind our way back in” explained Mathon.

That is when the roof fell in. Early in the 3rd quarter speedster Gifford Rose took a harmless looking 9 yard reception to the endzone another 30 yards away to extend the lead to 27 – 0. “The officials decided they were going to take control of the game and rather than issuing warnings to players of both teams they aggravated the situation by filling the air with flags” said Mathon. “It frustrated both teams, but being on the losing side, our guys didn’t react to it very well and lost our focus somewhat. We need to better focus our energies especially when things don’t go our way” explained Mathon.

Later in the 3rd quarter the Hawkeyes intercepted a Dave Wilson pass and returned it for a touchdown to make the lead 33 – 0. For the remainder of the game the Bulldogs decided to give their new or younger players a shot at getting some NFC game time. “We had to get something positive from this game and getting our new guys some playing time is something we need to do, hopefully next week we can do the same thing, but with a win in hand” added Mathon.

Obviously the Dogs are disappointed in their 2005 season start, but they will start a 3 game home stand next week as the Kitchener based Tri-City Outlaws come to town with an identical 1 – 3 record. “The next game is an important one for us because it could put us in a great position to secure a playoff position. We need to have a productive and fun week of practice so we can establish some offensive production to support our defense” explained Head Coach Marc Mathon.

Submitted to BayToday.ca