Quick start propels Bulldogs past Wildcats

CELINA - The Celina football team improved to 2-0 and 1-0 in the Western Buckeye League play with a 34-0 win over Bath Friday night at Celina Stadium.

Bulldog running back Garett Winget ran 12 times for 151 and a touchdown, quarterback Caleb Hoyng passed for 98 yards and ran for a two scores, as Celina ran its lead to 27-0 going into halftime and flipped on cruise control in the second half.

On Celina's first drive, Hoyng ran 18 yards on a third-and-16 to move into Wildcat territory. The very next play, Sean Kirk took it around the left side and took it to the house from 43 yards out.

Bath moved the ball inside the Celina 40 on its first series, but the drive was derailed when Frank Townsend took down Wildcat running back Kaden Sullivan for a loss on a third-and-three, forcing a punt.

It took Celina two plays to score on its next series. Winget broke two tackles at the point of attack and capped off the drive with a 75-yard touchdown scamper and the 'Dogs led 14-0.

On Celina's third series, Bath was flagged for pass interference on receiver Justin Keeling and Hoyng later hooked up with Jacob Stolly for a 25-yard completion on a third-and-six. A few plays later, Hoyng barreled his way into the end zone from five yards out to cap off a 21-point opening quarter.

Defensive back Zack Marks sacked Cameron Jenkins on a third-and-11 on Bath's first series of the second quarter. On the ensuing punt from inside the Wildcat 20, Spencer Chilcoat shot through and blocked the punt and recovered it. Two plays after, Hoyng found the end zone again, this time from 10 yards out.

Bath moved the ball into Bulldog territory on the following series but the drive was again upended on two big plays by the Celina defense.

With the ball inside the 20, Townsend brought down a Bath runner for a four-yard loss to set up a third-and-long. Jenkins went for the end zone on the next play and Kirk intercepted the pass and returned it 25 yards.

Winget had another 75-yard run called back for holding on the next series and Celina was forced to punt for the first time with 2:20 left in the half.

Gabe Herman's four-yard run concluded the Celina scoring with 1:47 left in the fourth.

Hoyng ended the game 9-of-14 for 98 yards and Kirk added four catches for 40 yards. The Bulldog defense allowed 173 yards of total offense and also added nine tackles for loss.

Coach Trent Temple was pleased with how his offense started the game and he was glad with his defense pitched a shutout. Through two games this season, Celina has allowed a total of three points. But the second-year head coach wasn't thrilled about the penalties, the less-crisp offense in the second half and a few blown coverages by the defense. The team will work on those things in the upcoming week of practice, he said.

"Offensively, we played well in the first half," Temple said. "Defensively, we didn't play to our potential. Now people might say 'Well you guys got a shutout.' ... Yeah we did, but they had some drops. We had some guys get behind us in coverage. If they convert those, instead of (34-0), it's a 34-21 ballgame. So we've got to get that fixed. That's uncharacteristic of our kids defensively. We didn't get a very good pass rush I didn't think. There's some things we need to do as a coaching staff to get that fixed.

"People might say don't be greedy, but our goal is set pretty high," he added. "For us to get to that goal, we need to play a lot better than we did tonight."

For now, though, the Bulldogs are where they want to be two weeks into the season: unbeaten.

"Anytime you're 2-0, especially anytime you can beat a WBL football team, you're happy about that. But we understand we've got a lot of work to do yet for us to get where we want to be. Good thing it's only Week 2. We've got eight more weeks left to keep getting better."