Footballs, flags fly in Bulldogs’ 49-27 win
It was hard to tell at times which were flying through the air more at Ida Baker Friday night – footballs or flags.
In the end, Jordan Diggs’ five touchdown passes were more than enough as the Bulldogs (3-3, 1-1 District 6A-10) flew past Cape Coral 49-27.
Diggs had two touchdown passes to Rasheed Golden, two more to Luke Endsley, and one to Ryan McColghan.
“He played well,” Bulldogs coach Brian Conn said of Diggs. “He made good decisions and took chances deep when we had them.”
The Seahawks (1-4, 0-2) got three touchdown passes and a scoring run from Maurice Flournoy.
The third team on the field did a lot of throwing as well. The officials called 37 penalties, 14 in the first quarter alone. Between Cape and Baker, 290 yards were lost due to penalties. For a young Seahawks team, the penalties were a killer.
“We’ve got to fix that,” Cape coach Larry Gary said. “We’ve got to work on it. Keep trying to get better. We fought down to the wire.”
Baker jumped out to a 13-0 lead on the arm of Diggs. His 32-yard pass to Josh Keller set up Iziah Febles’ five-yard touchdown run. Diggs hit Ryan McColghan for a nine-yard score.
Diggs hooked up with Golden for a 65-yard TD in the second quarter. The pair connected for a 24-yard score in the third. Golden had 122 yards receiving on the night, and also intercepted a pass.
In the second half, Diggs found Endsley for TD passes of 3 and 35 yards.
Diggs finished the night 14-of-27 for 251 yards.
Brennan Williams ran 16 times for 125 yards and a three-yard touchdown run for Baker.
The Seahawks had success with its running attack. Issac Washington had runs of 37 and 20 yards to set up Maurice Flournoy’s one-yard run. For the night, Washington carried 19 times for 209 yards. Flournoy raced 61 yards to the Bulldogs’ 12 in the final minute of the first half, but couldn’t score. Washington carried 19 times for 209 yards.
When he went back to pass, Flournoy was under heavy pressure. He was sacked eight times, six in the first half. Better protection in the second half allowed Flournoy to connect for three fourth-quarter touchdown passes, 20 yards to Keashawn McCoy, 40 yards to C.J. Lewis and 3 yards to Hunter Bontrager. Flournoy also hit Lewis for a two-point conversion.
“We give him a little time, it’s a different story,” Gary said.
“He’s a tough kid,” Conn said of Flournoy. “If he got out of the pocket we knew he had the ability to extend plays. So when we had opportunities to hit him a little bit, we decided to take that opportunity,”
Flournoy was 14-of-33 for 101 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.
David Montoya had a 28-yard field goal for the Bulldogs, winners of their last two, who travel to South Fort Myers next Friday. Cape Coral travels to Lehigh.
“We control our destiny at this point in district play,” Conn said. “Next week we’ve got a tough opponent in South. We’ve played them every year we’ve been open. We’re kind of the new kids in Lee County. It’s always a good game when we play.”