After losing their last game in mid September and starting the season 0-2, the John Hardin Bulldogs went on a tear, winning their next five straight and winning the District Title in 4-A, but all of that came to an end with a frustrating 14-10 loss in the Region Championship game at Hopkinsville.
The lose brought a climatic ending to first year Bulldog head coach Doug Preston, who had built a state champions at Franklin-Simpson and took over a program coming off a 5-7 season in 2019 and with the help of a strong senior class with returning talent in several skilled positions looks to have them back on the right track.
After an impressive win over Spencer County (41-0), the Bulldogs came into Hopkinsville last Friday well aware that the Tigers were also riding the wave of a four-game winning streak of their own and expected a dogfight. Defense ruled the night as both teams, although coming off blowout wins the previous week struggled to find the end zone this time around.
Unfortunately for John Hardin, the Tigers were able to find paydirt just once more than the Bulldogs. During a brutal first quarter, the Tigers were able to get things started with a 40-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Treyvon Jefferson to wideout Reece Jesse to put Hopkinsville up 7-0. It took John Hardin most of the first half, but they finally knoted the score at 7-all when quarterback Kadon Wilson hit receiver Tishawn Moore from 12-yards out with 3:00 left.
Although Jefferson completed 15-passes for 257-yards and a score, the John Hardin defense, which had been magnificent all season long and through much of the game bent, but didn’t break much. Still, after a neither team was able to get much going in the third quarter, the Tigers finally put together a drive which ended with a 3-yard touchdown run by Jayden Dillard to put Hopkinsville back on top, 14-7.
Behind by seven with an entire quarter remaining, the Bulldogs responded with another offensive push which finally died on the Tiger 11-yard line, but only got a 28-yard field goal by Zach Owen to cut the lead to 14-10. The Buddogs did get another opportunity when Devon Rogers picked off a Jefferson pass on the Tigers next possession, but were unable to get in position to score.
Hopkinsville did a great job taking away the John Hardin running game (149-yards / 162-yards offensively) and that was the difference in the 14-10 loss.
While Hopkinsville will move on to play powerful Boyle County (9-0) on the road for a chance to play for the 4-A Championship, the Bulldogs will look to next season. This team was actually better defensively not allowing over 20-points in any game this season after allowing over 300-points in a 12-game season for them. Preston has the Bulldogs on the right track if even in a pandemic shortened season, but he will lose 16-seniors many are skill players including quarterback (Wilson), running back (Dominik Hodges), wide out (JaKarius Barnes) and defensive standouts (Nick Surley, Braden Marble, Leeshawn Nailon, Isiah Butler and Malakai Nation).
Still, coaching a mutliple state champion, Preston understands that rebuilding and reloading is part of the job and hopefully 2021 will be a much smoother offseason and training camp than 2020 was for the new coach and his debut in black and red.
