McARTHUR, OHIO—It had been 10 quarters — two and a half games — since Athens had given up a point.
Up 20 points midway through the third quarter, Athens gave up a long touchdown pass, and the streak ended.
While coach Ryan Adams had said to keep quiet about the streak earlier in the week, this wasn’t something that Adams wanted to lose.
“That’s no kind of monkey you want off your back,” he said.
Even though the Bulldogs would go on to give up one more touchdown to make it a one-score game, they played well enough to win 28-14 over Vinton County on Friday night.
Going into the game, the Bulldogs knew they were going to have to contain the Vikings' athletic quarterback, Naylan Yates, who can create explosive plays when in the open field.
The Bulldogs didn't let him.
Yates needed to rely on his arm to get the job done, and the Bulldogs defense forced him to make perfect plays with his arm.
He made one on his long touchdown pass.
“We had pretty good coverage in place,” Adams said. “The ball was there, the route was there. He made a good grab.”
For the entire game, the Bulldogs' defense made plays when they needed it.
Once the Bulldogs had given up 14 unanswered points to make it a one possession game, they seemed to return to form, as Vinton County did not cross the 50-yard line for the rest of the game.
At the end of the first half, Vinton County had made it deep into Athens’ side of the field. The Bulldogs forced a fumble and recovered it, keeping the scoreless streak alive for the time being and taking back momentum from the surging Vikings.
At the time, the Bulldogs' defense was riding high and seemed poised to shut out its opponents for the third straight game. Once it gave up two scores, though, the defense looked right again.
“You want your kids to experience adversity,” Adams said. “We’re going to see some adversity, and we like to see how the kids react in those situations. We got a decent taste of that — more than I’d like.”
