DOMINATION | Bulldogs run wild, shut out Gladewater, 54-0

Sep. 18—GLADEWATER — Ever seen damage to the area around a train-track when the train breaks from the tracks, and plows over everything?

That's pretty much the scene that played out here at Jack V. Murphy Stadium on Friday night, with the Kilgore High School Bulldogs playing the role of the engine — and KHS coach Clint Fuller the conductor.

Kilgore never looked back, winning their final non-district game of the season, a somewhat-shocking 54-0 shutout over the Gladewater Bears.

Rider scored three touchdowns, all in the first half; Isaiah Ross scored twice; Da'Marion Van Zandt passed for a touchdown to Corey Rider; and Matthew Hardy and Devin Walker each scored once in a masterful rushing performance, to go along with a smothering performance by Kilgore's defense.

Kilgore (3-1) will start its District 9-4A, Division I schedule next Friday at home against Palestine.

KHS punter Jose Jaime didn't punt at all in the first half, but had a 46-yarder in the third quarter, and that was the least of Gladewater's worries.

Already trailing 33-0 at the half, Gladewater quarterback D.J. Allen was picked off by Corey Rider, a Matthew Rider reeled off a 40-yard run. Kilgore followed with a 21-yard run by Ross on the last play of a scoreless third quarter.

Ross scored just after the start of the fourth quarter on a 14-yard run. Corey Rider picked off a pass, and then Walker scored on a 3-yard run against his former team. Kilgore would add two more: Matthew Tyeskie recovered a fumble and returned it 70 yards inside Gladewater's 5, and then Hardy scored on a 2-yard run for the final score.

The first half, Kilgore's running game, which had been somewhat off last week, was back, and in a big way.

Kilgore opened the scoring with a 30-yard touchdown run by Rider, on just the second play from scrimmage of the game.

Gladewater responded, but turned the ball over on downs after eight plays, Kilgore's Chris Ervin throwing Gladewater's D.J. Allen — who is a verbal commit to TCU as a wide receiver, but played quarterback for the Bears against Kilgore — for a 5-yard loss.

The Ragin' Red added to the lead, well, often in the remainder of the half. After forcing the turnover on downs with the Ervin's tackle for loss, Kilgore put together an 11-play, 65-yard drive that again ended with Rider in the end zone, this time on a 14-yard run, with 5:02 left in the first quarter. Allen came around the corner to block the extra point by Chris Baldazo, but KHS led, 13-0.

Van Zandt was 3-for-4 on the drive, completing three passes to Dadrian Franklin.

The Bears continued a grind-it-out style, leaning on running back Malachi Gordon for much of it in a drive that stalled at Kilgore's 36. A holding call put the Bears in a fourth-and-17 hole, and Allen's pass downfield fell incomplete.

On Kilgore's next drive, it was Van Zandt and Corey Rider doing the damage, a five-play, 65-yard drive that ended with a 29-yard touchdown pass from Van Zandt to Rider. Baldazo was good on the point after, and Kilgore led, 20-0.

A fumble by the Bears set Kilgore up for yet another score, this time in the second quarter. Kilgore's Jackson Harris recovered the fumble, and on the very next play, Davin Rider and Kilgore's offensive line struck again, this time a 45-yard run, his third score of the half. The extra point hit the crossbar, but Kilgore had upped the lead to 26-0.

They'd get one more before the halftime break: a 65-yard run by Isaiah Ross, giving the Bulldogs a 33-0 lead, and also 235 yards rushing alone in the first half.

In a rough estimate of statistics from the game, just before deadline, Kilgore had 375 rushing yards and seven rush scores. Rider had 136 yards, Hardy 118, Ross, 101, and Walker, four for 21 yards.

Van Zandt went 5-of-8 for 66 yards and a touchdown pass to Franklin.

Kilgore finished with 411 total yards.