Bulldogs Are All Bark and No Bite

Hayfork took the win during the afternoon home game Saturday. The final score was 26-12 over the Butte Valley Bulldogs. Even with the fierce competition, we pulled through as the winners.

Hayfork took the opening drive and finished with a 25-yard TD pass from Dakota Mummy to Troy Hair for a 6-0 lead. Butte Valley later blocked a punt, and finished a short drive with a QB sneak for a TD and tied the score at 6-6 at the end of the 1st quarter. But Hayfork wasn’t going to give up that easily.

Hair expressed his joy at his touchdown, “It was amazing, it was my first touchdown ever in a high school game. I was so excited.”

Hayfork scored on the first play of the second quarter on a 27-yard TD run by Noah Fielding.  Mummy ran in the 2-point conversion and the score was 14-6. Butte Valley quickly responded by running the Hayfork kickoff back for a TD, and the score was 14-12 at the half.

In the 3rd quarter, Fielding scored on a 9-yard TD run to make the score 20-12. Fielding also scored on a 10-yard TD run at the beginning of the 4th quarter to bring the final score to 26-12 in favor of the Timberjacks.

Offensively, Noah Fielding did the load of the work. He carried the ball 29 times for 175 yards and scored three TDs. Dakota Mummy carried the ball 14 times for 62 yards and had one TD.  

The Timberjacks had a very strong defensive game, as Andy Yang had 13 tackles (10 unassisted) and had a sack with two forced fumbles. James Morrison had 9 tackles (7 unassisted) including 3 sacks and a fumble recovery. Devin Nanez had 8 tackles (4 unassisted) with a sack. Dakota Mummy intercepted a pass, and Troy Hair recovered a fumble.

On the season going forward, Morrison said, “After the previous two losses, I can for sure say we are definitely getting better and for sure are going to be undefeated in our league this year.” 

Hayfork is now 1-2 overall and 1-0 in league play. It is always a little different playing during the middle of the day, and it seemed as if Hayfork was a little flat at times. “We need to work on our focus in practice,” said head coach Mike Miller. “We have a lot to work on in practice this week as we need to clean up our special teams and get our offense to the line faster. However, a win is a win and we will gladly take it.” 

Hayfork’s next opponent will be the Westwood Lumberjacks and they will play here this Friday night at 6:00pm. Come out and support our student athletes.   

Sunshine Montgomery contributed to this article.