The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

ASOTIN - For a while, it all went as well as it could for the 15-man Dayton Bull­dogs squad against a tough opponent playing on home turf near the west bank of the Snake River.

"It was back and forth," head coach Dean Bickel­haupt said about his team's game against the Asotin Panthers Friday. "We were shutting them down (offen­sively)."

But with a little more than 4 minutes on the clock before the end of the first half, the Panthers broke out of their cage and went on a rampage, clawing up 20 points and leaving the Bull­dogs feeling shredded with nothing to show for it going into the break.

"Our defense was doing well, but we beat ourselves (on offense)," Bickelhaupt said. "It was a pretty good ball game until then."

In the span of those 4 minutes, the Panthers ran back a punt kick 60 yards for a touchdown, the first of the game. Although they missed the extra point, the Asotin team scored again after the Dayton offense fumbled on the 20-yard line and allowed the big cats to take over and get a pass into the end zone for TD number two.

Only a few plays later, the Bulldogs mishandled the ball again and the Panthers converted for a third touch­down with 1:15 to go in the half.

"The wheels kind of fell off," Bickelhaupt said. "It kind of escalates when that (big punt return) happens on their home field. It's difficult to regain your composure."

Even the halftime break didn't get the Bulldogs - hamstrung by several inju­ries before and during the game - back on their feet. Minutes into the third quar­ter, the Panthers scored right out of the gate with a 42-yard pass to make it 27-0 with the extra point.

Meanwhile, the Bulldogs couldn't get any traction against their league rivals, who marched down Day­ton's half and scored again on a 15-yard pass in the 6th minute.

If the Bulldogs were able to shut down the Panthers' offense in much of the first half, Asotin didn't yield much yardage the entire game. They kept the Dogs to 59 yards rushing and 48 yards passing and even though Lowden Smith had 17 carries for 74 yards and Andrew Mendoza had three carries for 12 yards, the other running backs lost ground worth 27 yards, Bickelhaupt said.

The Dogs allowed the Panthers to score once more in the third quarter off a 7-yard pass with 5 minutes left and to the Bulldogs' credit, they tightened their defense and kept a younger Panthers' squad from pen­etrating in the fourth period.

"We never quit," the head coach said. "We just kept battling. We finished up strong."

The intent and effort were there despite the loss of starting running back Guy Spellinger, out with a bro­ken collar bone, and Tatin McAfee, who had suffered a concussion. Even quar­terback Christian Warner, who suffered a hip injury in the game against Stanfield a week earlier, wasn't playing at full strength and "that hurt us too," Bickelhaupt said.

It didn't help that the team lost another starter to an injury in the third quarter when Zach Waggoner hurt his shoulder. Bickelhaupt said he's keeping his fin­gers crossed that Waggoner will be well enough to play against DeSales in Walla Walla on Friday.

"We'll bounce back," he said. "Hopefully, Zach will be okay."