FLORENCE – The Bangs Dragons remained undefeated on the season and still haven’t surrendered a point as they passed their first road test with flying colors, pummeling the Florence Buffaloes, 55-0, Friday night.
“With our first road trip of the year, that’s always a concern,” said Bangs third-year head coach Kyle Maxfield. “It was a two-hour drive and it showed on our first offensive possession. We had some mental errors and didn’t get a score, but once we got the cobwebs out we settled in and started executing. The defense really played well, we held them to negative yards rushing and if you do that you always have a chance.”
Coming a 28-0 victory over Early in the season opener, Bangs (2-0) pitched its second shutout as it limited Florence (0-2) to 108 total yards – 119 through the air and -11 rushing on 27 carries. The Dragons also recorded a pair of safeties.
“They’ve really been pretty physical, they’re running to the ball and not giving up big plays,” Maxfield said of the defense. “We gave up a big pass play right before the half but made the tackle and got to halftime without them scoring. I’m really pleased with the effort. We missed a few tackles last night, but overall the tackling’s been good.”
Offensively, the Dragons churned out 566 total yards – 328 rushing on 25 carries for an average of 13.1 yards per rush, and 238 yards through the air on just six completions, an average of 39.7 yards per toss.
Ethan Sanchez led the ground game with 200 yards and two touchdowns followed by Ethan Cortez with 59 yard and one score, Harley Keely with 36 yards, Guy Powell with 28 and Tait Bowers with 5.
Cortez completed 6 of 10 passes for 238 yards with four touchdowns as Sanchez hauled in three catches for 134 yards and two scores, Brayton Wedeman grabbed a 79-yard touchdown reception and Trevor Bowers contributed a 25-yard touchdown catch.
Braxton Melling booted a 25-yard field goal as well for the Dragons.
“After that first series we settled down,” Maxfield said of the offense. “There’s still a lot of things we need to clean up but we were able to spread the wealth pretty well and get a lot of touches to different guys and we’re a lot more productive when we’re able to do that.”
Next week, the Dragons visit the Winters Blizzards (0-2), who have started their season with losses to Anson, 34-22, in Week 1, and Eldorado, 51-19, on Friday night.
