LAKE HUNTINGTON – Sullivan West Coach Justin Diehl said it best, “Let our dogs be dogs,” and that’s exactly what they did on Saturday with a 52-8 rout of Tri-Valley in front of their home crowd in a key early season league matchup. The Bulldogs handled the Bears in a battle of 1-0 county teams as the defending Section IX Champions made another statement.

The game started fast from the opening kickoff, with Dylan Lockwood returning it 25 yards to the Tri-Valley 33. Less than a minute into the game, Evan Ebert took a snap from Wildcat and hurled it up to Alec Hubert who made the catch at the three-yard line. 

One play later, Hubert ran it in for six and a keeper by quarterback Adam Ernst on the two-point conversion made it 8-0 Sullivan West. 

“That’s kind of what our identity is,” said Sullivan West Coach Justin Diehl. “We want to attack defenses, make it hard for them to pinpoint one person and let our dogs be dogs.”

The Bears made things interesting on their second possession after forcing a turnover on downs on the Bulldogs second possession. 

On the first play of that drive, Zach Whipple took the handoff and ran it 65 yards to the end zone. Tri-Valley evened the score on the two-point conversion as it was 8-8 with 4:34 to go in the first quarter. 

Sullivan West would immediately take back momentum and never surrender it, as Hubert took the ensuing kickoff and returned it 85 yards to the house. After the failed two-point conversion, the Bulldogs led, 14-8, a lead they would never lose.

On the very next Bulldogs drive, freshman running back Paul Nunnari ran the ball 41 yards down to the Tri-Valley 19-yard line. The freshman was the leading rusher in the game, running for 101 yards on six carries. 

Ernst then found Ebert in the corner of the end zone who came down with the high-point catch and held on for the touchdown. After an Ernst keeper for the two-point conversion, Sullivan West led 22-8 at the end of one quarter. 

After forcing a punt, the Bulldogs drove back down the field and found paydirt, capped off by a Dylan Lockwood touchdown catch. Sullivan West led 30-8 following the two-point conversion on a pass to Seamus Johnston. 

The Bulldogs would get the ball back with less than a minute remaining in the half. They would go down to score again, capped off by an Ernst touchdown pass to Hubert as time expired. The Bulldogs led handily, 36-8 at halftime. 

Hubert scored his fourth touchdown of the day to begin the second half, running it in from the five-yard line after Ebert picked off Tri-Valley. After three quarters of action, the Bulldogs led 44-8. 

With less than 10 minutes to go in the game, Johnston had the ball but fumbled it at the 11-yard line, recovered by Tri-Valley. Johnston went down and had to be helped off the field with an apparent leg injury. 

Diehl told the Democrat after the game that Johnston was doing good and they are hoping that it is just an impact injury, not so much an ACL or PCL.

“We think, hopefully maybe a bone bruise,” said Diehl. “But we’ll see and he’ll be day-to-day or week-to-week depending on what the doctors say. Hopefully, it’s just not anything too serious.”

The Bears were unable to capitalize on the turnover as they fumbled at their own 38-yard line and gave the ball back to the Bulldogs. With 4:55 remaining, Lockwood came down with a 37-yard touchdown catch. After the two-point conversion, the Bulldogs were up 52-8, which was the final.  

“We played great,” Diehl said. “Boys came out and they executed. We have two really tough games coming up with Pine Plains and Eldred. We’re going to enjoy it on the short turnaround, but it’s right back to the grindstone.”

The Bulldogs travel to Pine Plains (0-2) to take on the Bombers at 7 p.m. on Friday and then travel to Port Jervis to take on Eldred (1-0) on Friday, October 4, as the Yellowjackets are still working on upgrades to their home field. 

“We had some kids that did show heart,” said Tri-Valley Head Coach Kevin Crudele. “It was a hard-fought game. Today they [Sullivan West] were a much better team in all facets of the game, but we had a few kids that really showed heart, fought through some pain and kept playing.”

Tri-Valley currently has Livingston Manor/Roscoe on their schedule for Saturday at home at 1 p.m., but the Wildcats had to forfeit their last game due to lack of numbers. 

“Our motto is, win, lose, blowout in either direction, go back to zero and zero,” Coach Crudele said. “A past victory doesn’t mean you’re going to win the next one and then a loss is the same. It’s just kind of reset and get back to film. We have a lot to improve upon and just grow each week.”