FORT WALTON BEACH — Crestview High School football Coach Tim Hatten was looking toward the fall on Friday, moments after the Bulldogs finished spring practice in jamboree action at Choctawhatchee High School’s Joe Etheredge Stadium.
“Come August or September this won’t mean a thing,” he told the team. “We will be 0-0.”
For the record the Bulldogs swept the Vikings and the Indians.
Crestview’s junior varsity scored a 10-7 win over Fort Walton Beach and the Bulldog varsity took a 12-7 win over the Vikings.
The junior Bulldogs beat Choctaw 14-0 and the Crestview varsity won 7-0.
“It was a good performance, a gritty performance against a couple of county rivals,” Hatten said. “We like to beat anybody close to us and we want to beat everybody.”
The Vikings struck first in the junior varsity quarter and were up 7-0 with 7:48 left in the period.
Crestview responded with a 70-yard drive to the end zone. B.A. Larkins started the drive with a 9-yard run. A 39-yard scamper by quarterback Rusty Moorer moved the Bulldogs deep into Viking territory with the ball on the 17 yard line. Two carries by Sidney Walker netted a touchdown.
Jacob Matthew’s extra point tied the game at 7-7 with 6:24 left in the period.
Matthew’s gave the Bulldog junior varsity the win with a 21-yard field goal as time expired.
As was the case in the JV quarter, the Vikings took an early lead, but couldn’t hold it.
Bulldog quarterback Corey Armstrong, who threw an interception of the first Crestview possession, shook off the mistake and marched his team 70 yards for a touchdown. Armstrong took the ball in from seven yards out for the score with 2:40 left in the quarter.
The extra point failed and the Viking varsity held a one-point advantage.
The advantage was short lived when Bulldog defensive lineman Tyrone “Moo Moo” Baker grabbed a mishandled Viking snap out of the air and raised 55 yards for a touchdown.
“The dude just bobbled the snap and I was in the right place at the right time and I just took it back,” Baker said.
Three plays later the Bulldogs got an interception from Andrew Adkins to ice the win.
Moorer and Lajonte Watson scored for Crestview as the Bulldogs shutout Choctaw in the junior varsity quarter.
The Bulldogs got a hard fought varsity win on a 2-yard run by Armstrong with four seconds left in the period.
“Ordinarily we don’t stick the ball in the end zone on that last play,” Hatten said.”But that was varsity versus varsity and neither one had scored and we felt like it was 0-0.
“Winning is a lot better than losing. It doesn’t matter what you are doing. We want to win at whatever we do and we want to compete.”
The Bulldogs start summer workouts June 16 and Baker is already looking to the fall.
“The win gave us a good look about what we have and I think we are going to do big things this year,” he said.
Hatten said the spring had been a continuation of last season.
“I like what we are doing,” Hatten said. “I think we can do a lot more and we can build on it.
“We picked up right where we left off probably in game 10 where we were moving the ball and reading defenses.”
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: Bulldogs head into summer with jamboree sweep