Priceville mauls Danville in rivalry game
Todd Barker
Special to the Enquirer
The Priceville Bulldogs got back to their scoring and winning ways, defeating county rival Danville 42-14 Friday night at Bulldog Stadium.
The large crowd witnessed a back in forth game early, but with a pick-six by Daniel Barnett in the first half and another by Justin Dozier in the second half, the Hawks began to stumble.
Offensively, the Bulldogs (3-2) spread the ball around in the passing game with Priceville’s Quarterback Kaleb Barker connecting with four receivers, completing seven of 14 passes for 121 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
The ground game also came alive with Zack Smith’s running for twos scores, carrying the ball 10 times for 129 yards while Barker carried 15 times for 115 yards.
Unlike the previous two weeks, Priceville won the turnover battle and played its best defense of late to control the final two quarters holding Danville (0-5) to 82 yards in the second half.
The scoring came first by Priceville with a drive of 60 yards that ended with a score by Barker with a one yard dive.
Danville responded quickly with a long run by Dallas McAbee for more than 70 yards, gashing the dogs for the score to tie the game.
The Bulldogs came right back with another scoring drive capped with a long run of 40 yards by Smith for the score.
Again Danville began to drive the ball, but this time the Bulldog defense got some points of their own with a interception return for a touchdown from 45 yards out.
Danville retaliated with another score by McAbee of more than 50 yards, just one of two touchdowns on the night with a total of 175 rushing yards.
“We really needed this game tonight,” coach Strunk said, “We need to build on the positives.”
Priceville returns to region play this next Friday, playing at East Lawrence while Danville travels to Good Hope.