The Winder-Barrow High School football team continues to turn in solid efforts, but victory continues to be just out of grasp for the Bulldoggs in 2010.
The latest missed opportunity came at the hands of Salem last Friday during homecoming as WBHS fell 16-6 in what was another defensive battle.
“We’ve been on the brink for what seems the entire season,” Bulldogg head coach David Wagner said. “There have been so many improvements from last year and this year. We continue to have too many miscues. We are putting the football on the ground too many times to expect to win.”
The visiting Seminoles, who recorded their first road win of 2010, jumped out to a 7-0 lead on their first possession of the game on a 66-yard touchdown run. The score remained that way until Salem added a 10-yard score with 6:12 remaining in the first half.
The Seminoles would add a safety in the closing moments of the first half for a 16-0 lead.
The WBHS defense would blank Salem in the second half and the offense got on the scoreboard on a 23-yard pass from Christian Hodge to B.J. Worley in the fourth quarter. The Bulldoggs went for two points in an effort to cut the lead to one score but was unsuccessful.
Wagner pointed out his team won the second half battle 6-0.
The key stat was the three first half turnovers by WBHS, however. Salem’s Jahaad Coleman also had a big night rushing for 170 yards on 19 attempts. It was the fourth win for the Seminoles although the Conyers-based school is likely out of playoff reach.
The WBHS coach praised his team’s effort.
“It’s really something to see,” Wagner said. ‘It hasn’t amounted to a win yet but when you look at how competitive we’ve been, it says a great deal about the character of the players to have so many games be so close. It is heartbreaking to be right there, on the edge of getting that first win. I would love for us to play mistake free and see what happens. We will just have to keep working and see what happens.”
A win this Friday would help ease some of the disappointment experienced by the Bulldoggs in 2010. WBHS travels to county and region rival Apalachee for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff. Due to this fall being the first year of a new two-year scheduling cycle, the game will be at AHS for the second consecutive season.
