CRESTVIEW — An explosive Crestview High School offense was on display Friday night as the Bulldogs took on Escambia and Navarre in a spring football jamboree for the first time under the direction of new head coach Tim Hatten.
The Bulldogs opened the night taking on Escambia and the Wing-T offense of the Gators.
Escambia drove 70 yards on 11 plays on the game’s opening drive to score a touchdown. The extra point proved to be the difference as the Gators would go on to win the half 7-6.
Gator fullback Danikeei Hollowell was the workhorse on the drive carrying the ball eight times for 57 yards. Most of Hollowell’s yardage came on a belly play straight up the middle.
Gerold Bright completed the drive with 2-yard run and Emilio Maldonado added the extra point as the Gators led 7-0 with 8:22 left in the first quarter.
Hatten was quick to point out that the Gator success was just the nature of spring football.
“We are not going to play a three-man front against a team that comes out and runs mid-line (during the regular season),” he said. “We are not going to scheme our whole spring around stopping Escambia. We just wanted to line up and play basic football and see what we could do.
“It’s a scheme they should be able to run against.”
The Bulldog defense adjusted to the Escambia offense to hold the Gators without another score the rest of the way.
Crestview only scored one touchdown against Escambia, but spread offense Hatten has installed showed plenty of promise.
The Bulldog score came on a 26-yard touchdown pass from Khalil Foster to Cyrus Daniels with 8:05 left in second quarter. The missed extra point turned out to be the difference.
Crestview was able to move the ball fairly well against the Gators. The Bulldogs moved the ball into Escambia territory on each of their three possessions. However, on two of the possessions Crestview turned the ball over on downs allowing the Gators to dodge a bullet.
Foster came up big passing completing 13-of-20 passes for 151 yards.
Emanuel Reed had six receptions for 74 yards. He also made the catch of the game when he managed to bat a ball that was slightly behind him forward and make the catch coming back over his shoulder. He then took the ball up the field for a 22-yard gain.
Daniels had two catches for 44 yards. Ronnie Baylark had four catches for 20 yards and Jaylynne Robinson had one catch for 13 yards.
Hatten said Foster did OK, but there is still room for improvement.
“We would have liked for him to be more successful and see a few more reads at the line of scrimmage a little bit more,” Hatten said. “But it is what it is.”
*The 2013 Crestview High School Sports Hall of Fame inductees were announced following the first half against Escambia.
This year’s class is Larry Adams, Lon Baggett, Juan Bonila, Jerry Davis, Lyndall Davis, Terri Zan Davis, Lt. Col. Joe Dortch, Kathy Dortch Zimmerman, Erick Harris, A.C. Koeninger, Joe Lawrence, Pat Lawrence, Kelvin Lee, Dean Mason, Red Medley, David Morgan, Charlie Powell, Justin Riley, Summer Rogers, Cam Sanders, Mark Sieron, Taucier Smalls.
Randy Dickson is the Crestview News Bulletin’s sports editor. Email him at randyd@crestviewbulletin.com, tweet him @BigRandle, or call 682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Gators nip Bulldogs