Dawgs to host Georgetown for season opener

By SEAN HANEY

Cove Leader-Press

This week the Copperas Cove Bulldawgs take on the Georgetown Eagles in the first home game of the 2022 high school season.

Last year, the Bulldawgs went 1-9 while Georgetown went 6-6 (playoffs included) with a district record of 4-3. They were an area finalist while making it to playoffs.

With the Dawgs having their 4th head coach in five years, the Dawgs are looking to improve on their 1-9 record from last season.

This team is young but has a lot of potential and experience. The players to watch for the Dawgs are, offensive lineman Mike Uini, linebacker Kevin Pontius, wide receiver Trishtin Glass, running back Craig Brown, defensive lineman Dominque Wyche, offensive lineman Chris Garcia, linebacker Dayne Holden, wide receiver Demetrius Pierce, quarterback Gabe Rodriguez, linebacker Jacoby Frazier, defensive lineman Rion Childers, defensive lineman Dequan Plowder, and quarterback Anthony King.

While the battle for starting quarterback races on, the offense will be leaning on big Mike Uini (who has multiple college offers already), running back Brown who had 470 yards rushing and wide receiver Glass who had 220 yards receiving last year, to help lead them to victory over the Eagles.

The defense, on the other hand, has junior defensive line Wyche and senior linebacker Pontius who had a big 68 tackles last year to help hold their side of the ball together.

Although Georgetown lost their quarterback due to him graduating, Coach Griffin believes their potential talent at the other positions will help them overcome that loss.

Key players to watch during this game for the Eagles would be running back Andrew Petter, wide receiver Drayden Dickmann, wide receiver Marquis Dominguez, offensive lineman Brodan Elliot, defensive lineman Michael Valenta, and quarterback Tucker Griffin.

With All District defensive linemen Valenta and Obinna (who transferred from Del Valle), the Eagles are hoping to have their defensive line improved by the start of tonight’s game.

While Griffin is taking the reins this year for the Eagles, he doesn’t have to do it alone. Griffin has a dual threat running back in Petter and has his top wide receivers Dickmann and Dominguez, who together last year had 25 touchdowns and 537 yards rushing with 2,474 between the three of them. It’s safe to say that Griffin can rely on his teammates.

With the defense having more experience than their offense, the Eagles can surely try and soar high this Friday, but the Dawgs are aiming clip their wings and stop them. Kickoff tonight is at 7:30 p.m. at Bulldawg stadium.

Last Thursday night, tensions were high for what looked like a weather-delayed game for the Bulldawgs’ scrimmage against Vista Ridge, but as game time approached, the weather took a turn and it was a nice mid 70-degree evening with nothing but sunshine in Cedar Park.

The Copperas Cove Bulldawgs took on the Vista Ridge Rangers for their first scrimmage of the year.

Although the game was not scored, the Bulldawgs put up a fight on the defensive side of the ball. The front four defensive lineman could not be stopped. They recorded four sacks and a fumble against the Rangers. The defense was the shining moment of the night.

After the game, his first at the helm of the Bulldawgs, Head Coach Tony Johnson talked about the defensive line’s showing.

“I’m pleased nobody got hurt tonight. I thought our defense has made a huge step up from last year, who gave up a lot of points every game. (They) played great tonight.”

On average last year, the Bulldawgs gave up approximately 63 points a game, so to see the defense step up and perform the way they did is a good moment for the Dawgs.

However, the front four cannot play the defensive side of the ball.

The secondary got beat countless times by the deep ball and letting the Rangers’ receivers beat them.

“Our secondary needs to get a little work done. They threw some deep balls where their guys ended up behind us and that’s what we need to eliminate going into next week, but I was very pleased that everyone kept their heads in the game and gave a great effort overall,” Johnson stated.

On the other side of the ball, though, it wasn’t as pretty. The Rangers’ defense was not going to let the Bulldawgs’ defense be the only ones to shine.

The Bulldawgs could not get the ball going through the air or the ground at all, having just a few completions 7-20 for a total of 74 yards, and averaging 10.6 yards per pass.

The offense had a total of 112 yards to Vista Ridge’s 310.

“I want to fix the offense a little more and tweak with it, get good at what we do and be consistent and learn to as a team to cheer each other on and stay together as a unit. When something’s not working, we can fix it together and not fall apart, and pick each other up when a something doesn’t happen in our favor,” Johnson added.

The run game seemed like a go-to during the scrimmage for the Dawgs, as it had nearly three times the attempts than their passing game, but it didn’t seem to go to well in the end, with 38 yards on 16 attempts and averaging 2.4 yards per carry.

“We have to work on our run game more with our offensive line so we can run the ball better than we did tonight,” Johnson stated.

Before going into the locker room, junior offensive lineman Mike Uini gave his thoughts about his team’s performance.

“Our defense did their thing tonight and our offense had some potential here and there, but overall, we all have work to do as a team. The tackles need to work on twisting and switching and our over setting and setting.”

Uini said that having their teammates cheering them on from the sidelines played a great part in keeping up their energy and momentum.

“Our sideline was very happy all night. Hyping us up on offense and our offense hyping up the defense makes me love the energy on the sidelines and makes me proud to be a Dawg.”

The Bulldawgs now know what they must work on to hopefully come out of next week’s home game with a record of 1-0. With scrimmage time done, it is now time for regular season to begin.

The Dawgs host their first official game of the season against Georgetown August 26 at 7:30 p.m., at home.