Bulldogs split in jamboree

By Dustin Kent

Published: May 21, 2008

The Marianna Bulldogs capped their spring season Tuesday night by splitting a pair of quarters in a jamboree in Blountstown.

MHS fell to Port St. Joe 14-6 in the third quarter before beating Blountstown 14-0 in the fourth.

After Dustin Larkin threw a short touchdown pass to R.J. Bowers for the first score of the night, Port St. Joe responded with a pair of long scoring drives to take the win.

Against Blountstown, the Bulldogs’ star running back Bradley Battles broke free for a 70-yard touchdown run to put Marianna on the board first.

On the Tigers’ ensuing possession, Marianna’s recovered a fumble and returned it 60 yards for another score.

All in all, Marianna coach Rob Armstrong said he was satisfied with what his team accomplished.

“I was real pleased with how the spring ended up,” the coach said. “The defense played pretty good, we played a lot of people and got some film to look at, which is what we were trying to do, to get a look at everybody we had. We accomplished that.”

Even against Port St. Joe, Armstrong said there were several positives for his team.

“In the first quarter, we played pretty good defense. They only had one first down first quarter,” he said. “They hit some passes on us in the second quarter, but we moved the ball pretty well and had no turnovers and few penalties.

“This time of the year, (penalties and turnovers) are usually the norm, but we didn’t have that.”
Battles, who proved to be one of the best backs in the state in 2007 with a stellar, 2,000-yard junior season, only got five carries on the night.

“We weren’t really being extra careful,” the coach said of the limited action for Battles. “It’s just that we’ve seen him and know what he can do, so we wanted to get some other kids some touches and see what they would do.”

Those that did fill in seemed to satisfy their coach.

“RJ Bowers had a good game and Quan also ran it well,” Armstrong said. “Those are two guys we’re counting on who had good games. Trey Long and Coco Borders are two younger guys who played who we’re looking to help us.”