By halftime, the most interesting thing about the Gallatin-Albany football game may have been the start up of the Whiteman Air Force Base helicopter behind the visitors’ bleachers that turned heads all over the field.
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Friday night was Homecoming for the winless Warriors, but, for them, it was a bad script from the get-go. Albany failed to execute an on-side kickoff to start the game, and the Bulldogs used that and other effective means to roll to a 50-6 Grand River Conference victory.
On this night, Gallatin was clearly superior on both sides of the ball. Matt Atkinson intercepted a slant pass and ran it back 47 yards for a score. Kale Hefley scored on a keeper thanks to a Terrill Wood interception, and kept on TD option runs of 61 and 12 yards (set up by a Tyler Brackett 28-yd. catch). All in the first quarter, and all to the tune of a 25-0 lead.
Gallatin coach Jeff White hopes the Bulldog offense has finally started to hit on all cylinders after sputtering over the course of the last three contests.
“Offense takes longer to develop than defense,” he began. “It’s not easy to change everything they had been taught in the past, especially since they were pretty successful doing things the old way,” he added. “Our line is now figuring out how to use their hands and sustain blocks, our skill positions are figuring out how to play in space better, and our quarterbacks are learning how to read the whole field versus just one receiver.”
The Bulldogs, and Selby in particular, wasted little time in padding their lead in the second quarter. Selby gained 20 yards on a pass play, then rolled 43 yards through missed tackles for a score. Brackett kicked the extra point to put Gallatin up, 32-0.
A pass from Hefley to Derrick Teel on fourth and long produced yet another touchdown at the 7:31 mark of the second period. Teel hauled in the pass and wove down the right sideline into the end zone from 41 yards out.
Albany’s best threat at a score came when Jordan Davis caught a passed tipped by Quentin Trimm and turned it into a 59-yard gain for the Warriors down to the Gallatin 20. Wood nearly intercepted a third down pass, and a fourth down pass by the Warriors for a first down was erased by a holding penalty. Another fourth down try fell incomplete.
With 4:08 to play in the third quarter, Teel slipped the grasp of a pair of downfield defenders on a 35-yard TD run. Jordan Bradley came off the bench and added a final GHS touchdown in the fourth quarter.
The Bulldogs know they can’t get too high after their first win in four games, because state-ranked and conference-frontrunner Princeton comes in Friday for Homecoming.
“Princeton will, without a doubt, be our biggest challenge yet,” said Coach White. “Coach Cavanah will have them prepared, and they will have some added motivation coming in because of homecoming,” he advised. “Princeton will do what they always do and do it very well,” he added. “They are big and they are physical. We will have to play our best game to date to have a chance to beat them.”