Bulldogs earn second straight victory

Austin Robertson (85) of Union reaches out for a catch against the Indiana Deaf School in a high school football game at Dugger Friday night. The Bulldogs won their second straight game, improving to 2-1. (By Shad Cox). [Order this photo]

While the winning Bulldogs extended their winning streak to two games in improving to 2-1 on the season, their celebration was tempered somewhat due to suffering second-half injuries to a pair of key performers.

Union utilized a prolific ground attack, accumulating 376 yards rushing in generating 419 yards total offense. Quarterback Sterling Langley and running back Mike Foglesong, both seniors, tallied 145 and 131 yards rushing respectively. Darrell Faulkner, also a senior, chipped in with 86 yards rushing.

"Our offensive line did a nice job and my running backs knew they did a good job up front," Union coach Todd Gambill expressed. "We were able to run the ball against [Indiana Deaf School], so we gave the offensive line a nice credit. Our running backs ran hard. Nice job on the ground."

However, Langley injured his shoulder with just over two minutes left in the third quarter, then Foglesong injured his knee with just over four minutes remaining in the game. Foglesong's injury appeared to the most serious, leaving the field on a golf cart after the game.

"Langley we'll just have to see, shoulder and upper body area is sore . . . but we don't know about Mike. We'll just have to wait and see what the doctor says about that," Gambill said.

Ironically, Foglesong and Langley provided the Bulldogs scoring in building a 12-0 lead in the first quarter. Foglesong capped off a 62-yard drive with a 1-yard surge up the middle, then Langley followed with a 11-yard dash to the end zone. Langley added a 70-yard burst to daylight for a second touchdown in the second quarter, before Langley capped off a 66-yard drive just before halftime on a 15-yard touchdown pass to Austin Robertson.

Indiana Deaf seemingly spent most of the first half on Union's side of the field, but could only strike paydirt once on a 27-yard pass from Austin Phillips to Cody Crace. Union led comfortably at 28-8 at the intermission.

Indiana Deaf came out of halftime perking on offense, driving 50 yards in six plays. A personal foul penalty by Union aided in the drive, the Hoosiers scoring on a 11-yard TD pass from Phillips to Zack Kremer. Kremer ran in for a two-point conversion, slicing Union's lead to 28-16 with 8:38 to go in the third quarter.

"[Indiana Deaf] came out in the second half and put [a touchdown] on the board after I tried to preach at halftime 'we need to shut this offense down,'" Gambill said. "So we were not real happy with the defense coming out of the halftime. But they played better toward the end of [the third] quarter and into the fourth quarter."

After Deaf School's scoring drive, Union went right back down the field as Foglesong rumbled for gains of 22 and 29 yards. But Faulkner fumbled at the Deaf School 38, recovered by the Hoosiers' Kremer less than two minutes later.

Union regained some lost momentum as their defense limited Deaf School to a three-and-out, then followed it up with a 38-yard scoring drive. Union's good field position was created by a 15-yard punt return by Faulkner, with Faulkner completing the scoring drive on a 13-yard run with 51 seconds left in the third quarter.

Deaf School threatened to score again early in the fourth quarter, but after driving to the Union 16, they were stymied on fourth down at the 9:01 mark. Faulkner recovered a Deaf School fumble with 4:41 remaining in the game, then the Bulldogs ran out the final 4:41 to preserve their 20-point victory.

Union (2-1) will visit Tecumseh at 8 p.m. next Friday.

BULLDOGS 36, HOOSIERS 16

Indiana Deaf School 0 8 8 0 -- 16

Union 12 16 8 0 -- 36

First quarter

U -- Mike Foglesong 1 run (pass failed), 7:22

U -- Sterling Langley 11 run (pass failed), 1:37

Second quarter

U -- Langley 70 run (Langley run), 6:00

D -- Cody Crace 27 pass from Austin Phillips (Phillips run), 1:41

U -- Austin Robertson 15 pass from Langley (Langley run(, :51

Third quarter

D -- Zack Kremer 11 pass from Phillips (Kremer run), 8:38

U -- Darrell Faulkner 13 run (Foglesong run), :51

IDU

First downs 10 19

Rushes-yards 31-110 41-376

Passing yards 93 43

Total yards 203 419

Com-Att-Int 11-16-0 3-5-0

Return yards 27 0

Punts-avg. 3-25 0-0

Fumbles-lost 4-1 5-1

Penalties-yards 11-75 6-45

Time of possession 25:23 22:37

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Indiana Deaf, Kremer 6-18, Phillips 18-minus 40, Chace Schaffer 7-32. Union, Faulkner 14-86, Langley 9-145, Foglesong 14-131, Wes Inman 1-minus 1, Ethan Secrest 3-15.

PASSING -- Indiana Deaf, Phillips 11-16-0 193. Union, Langley 3-5-0 43.

RECEIVING -- Indiana Deaf, Kremer 4-59, Kenny Long 5-86, Crace 2-48. Union, Robertson 2-19, Chris Simmerman 1-24.