By Devin Smith

High school football teams across the state held their season-openers on Friday, and the Pike County Bulldogs met the Charles Henderson Trojans in its annual Pike County Classic.

The Bulldogs fought hard in the first half, but were eventually overpowered by a very talented Trojan team.

“We had a couple costly turnovers that happened but overall it gave us it gave us a good measure of where we are and the work we have to do,” said Pike County head coach Fred Holland. “I told the players that Troy is one of the top 4A teams in the state. Overall we did alright, we just still have a lot of work to do.”

After sputtering on its first drive the Bulldogs allowed the Trojans to score just four plays later.

On the following drive Sophomore quarterback Jerrel Lawson was sacked for what would be the third of seven by the Trojan defense, forcing a fumble that Trojans senior defensive end Jermaine Parker would return to take an early 14-0 lead.

The Bulldogs would fire back however, beginning with defensive back Kamari Jackson’s interception early in the second quarter.

Pike County used the short-field advantage to punch in a touchdown by running back Timiarion Thompkins, narrowing the gap to just one score.

The defense of the Bulldogs came to life for the remainder of the quarter until a last-second prayer by the Trojans quarterback found a man open in the back-corner of the endzone, giving Charles Henderson a 20-7 advantage at the half.

In the second-half the Trojans took control of the contest, holding the Bulldogs to just 54 yards of total offense. From that point Charles Henderson would cruise to a 47-7 victory.

Holland and his team will have a week to fix some of the issues from this game before meeting the Goshen Eagles this coming Friday.

“Well we open up with Goshen and im pretty sure our kids will be very excited about it,” said Holland. “We’ll just come in on Sunday and see what we did and have a good work week overall tweaking some of the things we need to do.”