SALINEVILLE — The undefeated East Palestine Bulldogs needed to stay focused as they prepared for their game with the Southern Indians. Coming off a big victory over Lisbon last week, with tough opponents ahead on their schedule, they couldn’t afford to look past the Indians.

It became apparent early on that they were up to the challenge, as they dominated the Indians to the tune of a 49-12 victory, staying unbeaten on the season with a 5-0 record. They also pushed their Eastern Ohio Athletic Conference mark to 2-0.

“It feels great. I don’t know what else to say. This is what we worked for,” an elated Bulldogs head coach Michael Demster said. “To be halfway through the season and to be undefeated right now is a pretty darn good feeling.”

“It was a good win for momentum,” said junior Tanner Morrow. “We have to just take it week by week and keep winning.”

The Indians dropped to 1-4 on the season, 1-1 in EOAC action. That matches the Indians’ record through five games last year before they reeled off five consecutive wins to finish the year at 6-5.

“We have a lot of young guys right now that are getting varsity experience and even some older guys that came out this year and are getting first-time varsity experience,” Indians head coach Zack Almy said. “We have some key injuries in some key spots. We have to coach these guys up.”

The Indians were without the services of senior Landen Heffner and junior quarterback Chase Utt. So, that left them with a freshman quarterback, a sophomore halfback, and a freshman fullback to fill in the starting offensive backfield.

The Bulldogs wasted little time in grabbing command of the contest as they scored on their first two possessions to jump out to a 14-0 lead midway through the first quarter. Zach Schnelle scored on a 14-yard run, followed by a 22-yard pass from quarterback Clark Rutledge to Tanner Morrow.

“We made it perfectly clear that the way that we finished our game last week was unacceptable. And we did what we needed to do to fix those things in practice,” Demster said about the Bulldogs showing no signs of a letdown from last week’s big win.

The Bulldogs racked up 302 total yards, 158 coming from the rushing attack, while they added 144 yards through the air. They also scored on special teams.

However, the Indians’ game plan worked to perfection in their second possession of the contest when they drove 66 yards on 11 plays with Logan Mettenberger scoring on an 11-yard run to cut the deficit to 14-6. That score came just 8 seconds into the second quarter.

“We wanted to run the clock out, to run the ball, which we did well,” said Almy. “We just couldn’t keep the ball in front of us on defense.”

But the Bulldogs responded by scoring on their next two offensive possessions and a special teams punt return to pull away from the Indians by the intermission. Rutledge connected with Morrow again, this time on a 4-yard passing strike to make it 21-6 with 8:20 left in the quarter, followed by Morrow returning a punt 50 yards with 4:29 remaining to boost their advantage to 28-6. They added their final touchdown of the half with just 1:29 remaining when Rutledge connected with Schnelle on a 53-yard pass and run to stake the Bulldogs to a commanding 34-6 lead at halftime.

“We have four or five guys, in all honesty, that we want to get the ball to. Some nights, some of those guys get more touches just because of the way defense is and the matchups that we like. Tonight just happened to be another good night for Tanner. Zachary had some good carries, and Clark made some good reads and some great throws. But our offense, we pride ourselves on our balance and being able to spread the ball around,” Demster said.

The Bulldogs picked up where they left off to start the second half when they used just six plays to score at the 7:13 mark of the third quarter to put them up 41-6. This time, Rutledge raced into the end zone from 11 yards out for the touchdown.

“You can’t give up, you have to play all four quarters,” Morrow said.

They scored their final touchdown with 10:55 left in the game when Schnelle swept around the left end from 11 yards out. With a misfire on the extra point that led to a two-point conversion, the Bulldogs led 49-6 and activated the running clock.

However, the Indians didn’t back down as they mounted a solid 74-yard drive on 9 plays with Jaylen Pitts scoring from 23 yards out to make it the final 49-12 score. That touchdown came with 4:45 remaining in the contest.

“A lot of our young guys stepped up tonight,” Almy pointed to some positives for his young Indians team. “(Malachi) Weyand ran the ball like his hair was on fire, right to the very end. So I have to give props to him. And Jaylen Pitts stepped in as our two back, filling in for Heffner tonight. He ran his butt off. We just can’t let the little things get us down too much.”

The Bulldogs will look to stay undefeated on the season next Friday when they host the Wellsville Tigers. The Indians will try to bounce back next Friday when they travel to Columbiana.

EP: 14-20-7-8-49

S: 0- 6-0-6-12

SCORING

EP-Zach Schnelle 14 run (Brad Bartels Kick)

EP-Tanner Morrow 22 pass from Clark Rutledge (Bartels Kick)

S-Logan Mettenberger 11 run (Run Failed)

EP-Morrow 8 pass from Rutledge (Bartels Kick)

EP-Morrow 50 punt return (Bartels Kick)

EP-Schnelle 53 pass from Rutledge (Kick Failed)

EP-Rutledge 11 run (Bartels Kick)

EP-Schnelle 11 run (Peyton Rutledge pass to Morrow)

S-Jaylen Pitts 23 run (Run Failed)

——

EP S

First downs 15 12

Total Yards 302 212

Rushes-yards 19-158 44-208

Passing 144 4

Comp-Att-Int 9-12-0 1-4-1

Punts 0 3-9

Fumbles-Lost 1-1 0-0

Penalties-Yards 8-71 9-74

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INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

RUSHING-East Palestine, Zach Schnelle 10-94, Clark Rutledge 6-43; Southern, Jaylen Pitts 21-103, Malachi Weyand 9-64.

PASSING-East Palestine, Clark Rutledge 9-12-144-3-0; Southern, Jack Pitts 1-4-4-0-1.

RECEIVING-East Palestine, Tanner Morrow 4-70, Zach Schnelle 1-53; Southern, Logan Mettenberger 1-4.

INTERCEPTIONS-East Palestine, Brad Bartels.