ZEPHYR – Vying for their first victory since Sept. 25, 2020, the Zephyr Bulldogs at times appeared poised to snap their 14-game skid in Thursday night’s season opener against the Bronte Longhorns. Leading by seven points at halftime, the Bulldogs were plagued in the final two quarters by nine of their 12 penalties and two of their three turnovers, which resulted in just six points as Bronte rallied for a 44-37 triumph.
Despite the setback, Zephyr fourth-year Jeremy Phillips – who has witnessed the Bulldogs post a 5-26 record during his tenure – feels much-needed positive strides were made.
“There were some things we saw tonight that we haven’t seen in the last year, maybe the last year and a half,” Phillips said. “They fought, they continued to fight, they didn’t lay down and we put ourselves in a position at the end to come away with the win, we just didn’t get it done. But we saw some leadership from our seniors we didn’t always have in the past, so we still feel good about the next several weeks we have ahead.”
Zephyr finished with 344 total yards – 245 rushing and 99 passing – but committed three turnovers and was flagged 12 times for 72 yards.
Eathan Gowin rushed for 70 yards and two touchdowns, caught two passes – both for touchdowns – totaling 63 yards, and hurled a 10-yard completion. Jayden Millican added 173 yards and a score on the ground, tossed a 50-yard touchdown to Gowin and caught a 10-yard pass from Gowin.
Gowin, however, suffered a lower left leg injury and missed portions of the second half, while cramps eventually caught up with the Millican late in the game and limited some of his playing time.
“We have a lot of guys with nicks and shin splits, but they showed some toughness tonight,” Phillips said. “Losing Eathan there for several series kind of took the momentum away from us, but we had some other guys that were able to step up and do a little bit for us.”
Defensively, Zephyr yielded 342 yards of total offense – 178 through the air with three scoring tosses and 164 on the ground with two scores – to Bronte. The Longhorns also returned a kick 45 yards for a touchdowns and committed just one turnover.
Jayton Galvan completed 8 of 15 passes for 178 yards and three scoring tosses and returned a kick 45 yards for six points for the Longhorns; Cole Knight hauled in three receptions for 95 yards and one score; Tristan Minjarez rushed for 85 yards and two touchdowns and caught a 38-yard scoring reception; and Aiden Beck rushed for 45 yards and hauled in two catches for 37 yards.
“We focused on getting better at stopping the run and sometimes with the defense we run it puts us in a bind and puts a lot of one-on-one match-ups on the secondary,” Phillips said. “We didn’t do a very good job of playing the ball in the air. Receivers got behind us and we weren’t able to make plays on the ball. But there at the end we were there to make some plays, but the ball always seemed to bounce right to them. We’ll continue to work on that and hopefully get better.”
Leading 31-24 at halftime, the Bulldogs surrendered a 32-yard scoring sprint to Minjarez just 1:14 into the third period to fall behind, 32-31.
Zephyr grabbed its final advantage, 37-32, with 4:42 left in the third period on a 2-yard plunge by Millican.
The Longhorns reclaimed a 38-37 edge on the ninth and final lead change of the contest as Diego Perez made a bobbling reception of a 2-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-goal with 1:39 left in the third period.
On the ensuing drive, the Bulldogs overcame penalties of 10 and 15 yards and converted a fourth-and-16 on a run by Millican and a fourth-and-10 on a toss from Bransen Bumguardner to Waggoner Shelton. But on second and goal on the Bronte 23, after yet another whistle against Zephyr, Galvan picked off a Bumguardner pass attempt and returned the interception 58 yards to the Bulldog 7.
Two plays later, Minjarez scored on a 2-yard carry with 6:44 left, but the two-point kick failed to keep Zephyr’s hopes alive, 44-37.
Zephyr’s next drive ended thanks to a fourth-and-24 from the Bronte 39, as a completion from Gowin to Millican only covered 10 yards.
The Bulldogs were able to stop Bronte at the Zephyr 39 with 1:58 left on the clock, but two snaps later another interception ruined the hopes of a comeback.
“We have some new faces and we’re doing some different things so it’s going to take a little bit of time to figure things out,” Phillips said. “As we just told the kids, we have to clean these things up and if we do that, we feel like we were two of three touchdowns better than that team, and we were picked to get 45’ed by them. Obviously, the kids are disappointed we didn’t come away with a win, but as a coach I’m proud of their effort.”
In the first half, Zephyr struck first on a 13-yard pass from Bumguardner to Gowin, then Jacob Nixon hurled an extra-point pass to Ethan Byers to stake the Bulldogs to a 7-0 lead at the 6:31 mark of the opening quarter.
The see-saw of momentum began to take shape as Bronte went up 8-7 when Galvan returned the ensuing kick 45 yards for a touchdown and the two-point kick was true.
Zephyr regained a 15-8 edge on a 3-yard dive by Gowin and a kick by Nixon, but a 52-yard punt after Bronte’s next possession set the Bulldogs up at their own 1, and Gowin was tackled in the end zone for a safety as the Longhorns crept within 15-10 at the 3:04 mark of the opening stanza.
Bronte forged ahead, 16-15, with 2:20 left in the first period on a 38-yard toss from Galvan to Minjarez.
The Bulldogs made the score 23-15 on the first snap of the second period as Gowin scored on a 6-yard run when he plowed through the entire Bronte defense, breaking four tackles en route to the end zone.
The Longhorns took a 24-23 lead on a 32-yard toss from Galvan to Knight at the 6:44 juncture of the second quarter.
The final points of the opening half belonged to Zephyr, however, as Millican connected with Gowin on a 50-yard pitch and catch with the Bulldogs facing a third-and-15 at the 5:22 juncture of the second quarter.
Zephyr (0-1) will be back in action at Veribest (0-1) at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 2. The Falcons are coming off a 58-13 loss to Santa Anna Thursday night. Meanwhile, Bronte (1-0) heads to Rule next week.
