CALALLEN — The streak is finally broken.
After 12 years of early bi-district exits, the Lyford Bulldogs put together a dominating performance on both sides of the football and steamrolled the Jourdanton Indians 42-25 Friday night at Wildcat Stadium.
Head-turning performances from Jarod Stroud (162 receiving, 1TD), Sam Rocha (128 receiving, 1TD), Chase Hinojosa (328 yards passing 5TDs) and Frank Moreno (114 rushing 1TD, 27 yards receiving 1TD) kept the Bulldog faithful on the edge of their seats.
The win set up a Class 3A area round date with Yoakum at Sinton next Friday at 7:30 p.m.
“I thought both teams played hard and it was a physical game, they came and gave all they had and we did a good job,” said Lyford head coach Jamie Infante. “They played the game plane we expected ‘which was to line up and come straight at us and control the clock’ which they did a great job of, but credit to our kids because although they controlled the time of possession, we kept scoring touchdowns.
“It was a full team effort and they validated and represented their district well tonight and we’re proud of their effort.”
And it didn’t take long to start the scoring. On the Bulldogs’ second snap of the night, Frank Moreno took a handoff from quarterback Chase Hinojosa and went the distance on a 63-yard TD that gave Lyford a 7-0 lead with 9:47 remaining in the first.
However, the Indians put together a drive of their own and capped it off with 3-yard touchdown to tie the game at seven a piece.
But on the ensuing drive Hinojosa hit Sroud for a 56-yard reception that had the traveling Bulldog faithful on their feet.
Up 14-10 with 9:31 left in the second quarter, Hinojosa unleashed a 70-yard bomb to Stroud who widened the mark to 21-10.
The Bulldogs would go in at the half with a 21-18 lead. However, in the second half the defense made some adjustments and allowed just seven points.
“Defensively we made some great adjustments in the second half and we shut them down,” said Infante. “we’ve got a great secondary and I think we picked off most of what they threw and the rest of the time we had them covered like a blanket.”