Bulldogs Clip Falcons in Final Tune-up

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Looking for improvement in the final scrimmage before the season opens on August 23, the Milton-Union football team played its best football of the preseason defeating the Graham Falcons 34-14 in three quarters on Friday night at Dallas Stadium.

Milton-Union struck first taking the opening kickoff sixty-five yards in seven plays. The big play of the drive was a Clay Minton fifty-three yard run, and Adam Martin punched it in from two yards out on a QB sneak to make the score 6-0. Nick Fields added the extra point and the Bulldogs led 7-0 just 2:08 into the contest.

Graham followed with a twelve play drive but stalled, and after a M-U punt, the Falcons took control of the second quarter by adding a touchdown on a 10 play, 67 yard drive to tie the score at 7-7. After the touchdown, the Falcons tried an onside kick, but the Bulldogs recovered at the M-U 45 with great field position.

It took just four plays for the Bulldogs to take the lead, and this was Jake Finfrock’s drive. Finfrock accounted for fifty-one yards on the drive with three spectacular runs, the last a twenty-five yard scamper up the right sideline to give M-U a 13-7 lead as the extra point sailed wide.

Graham fought back quickly and surprised the Bulldog defense with a lightning quick 4 play, 70 yard drive and a 14-13 lead with just over six minutes left in the first half. This would be the last scoring for the Falcons on this night.

M-U took the kickoff and went into a no huddle offense. This changed the tempo and the entire tenor of the game. The Falcon defense never adjusted to the on the ball play calling of Adam Martin, and the Bulldogs went forty-five yards in just three plays scoring on a forty-one yard quarterback draw by Martin. Fields added the extra point, and the Dogs went into halftime leading 20-14.

Any thoughts of a Falcon comeback were destroyed in the first three plays of the second half. Following a fourteen yard return on the kickoff to the twenty-one yard line, the Bulldogs sacked the Falcon quarterback on consecutive plays for losses totaling thirteen yards. The final play of the drive netted just four yards, and the Falcons were forced to punt. The punt traveled just thirteen yards, and M-U with great field position scored in just two plays on a two yard run by Cole Jones. Again Fields added the PAT and the Dogs led 27-14.

After a fifteen play drive ended for the Falcons on a fourth down incompletion, the Dogs ended the scoring with a 5 play, 76 yard drive capped off by Tyler Brown’s bruising ten yard run and Field’s PAT making the final 34-14.

The Bulldogs ended with 330 total yards led by Adam Martin’s ninety-five yards rushing and fifty-six yards passing on 5 of 10. Jake Finfrock added seventy-five yards rushing and Clay Minton had sixty-two yards on the ground. Cole Jones added twenty-six yards, and Tyler Brown sixteen yards rushing.

The Bulldogs open the regular season on Friday night  (August 27) at home against the Miami East Vikings. Game time is set for 7:30.

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