Treyce Albin caught the ball in the middle of the field, made a move to evade a defender, and ran all the way to the end zone for a 70-yard receiving touchdown.
Robert Dickelman caught the ball near the sideline, made a cut inside, spun out of a tackle, cut back toward the sideline and ran the rest of the way into the end zone for a 38-yard receiving touchdown.
Both players leapt in the air, and landed in the arms of their teammates to celebrate the touchdowns. It’s easy to know why the Bulldogs were so fired up: It was homecoming.
When Athens has had big plays this season, it has normally been quarterback Clay Davis throwing deep balls to his receivers.
Friday night, his receivers were the ones making plays. The two touchdowns, along with a 29-yard receiving touchdown by Albin from a deep ball from Davis late in the game led Athens to a 21-3 win over Logan at R. Basil Rutter Field.
Other than the three long plays, Athens could not get much going for the rest of the game.
Albin’s touchdown came on the second play of the game; Dickelman’s touchdown came early in the fourth quarter.
“I got to think our yardage on the night was probably fantastic,” coach Ryan Adams said. “We just couldn’t just finish the job.”
When the Bulldog offense could not gain much yardage, and was either forced to punt or turn the ball over on downs, they needed to look to something try and generate offense.
Davis found Albin over the middle four times on the night, once on the long touchdown, and three other times, the Bulldogs picked up first downs on the play.
“They kept giving it to us, so we kept taking it,” Adams said.
Friday night marked the first time that Athens had beaten Logan since 1995. The Bulldogs fell just short last season, losing 31-30. This win was especially big for Adams, who was a part of the old Athens-Logan rivalry.
The Dickelman touchdown especially eased his mind.
“It was huge for me,” he said. “Anytime you keep an opponent close to you, especially with the history we have with Logan, bad things happen.”
