Some unforeseen circumstances forced the Dowagiac football team to improvise in its season opening 17-7 loss to visiting Vicksburg Thursday night.

The Chieftains (0-1) lost starting quarterback Brenden Dudley to an injury in the opening quarter forcing Dowagiac coach Mike Stanger to go to backup quarterback Caleb Murphy, who was originally scheduled to only take about a quarter of the snaps against the Bulldogs.

Dudley put a tooth through his bottom lip and needed six stitches to repair it.

He should be ready to play Thursday night against visiting South Haven at Chris Taylor Alumni Field.

“We’ve got work to do,” Stanger said. “We have to look at some film and see what we did wrong. We need to finish drives on offense. I thought we moved the ball better than our scrimmage indicated where we didn’t move the ball as much, but our defense was really stout.

“Out here we moved the ball better, but we didn’t finish the drives. We stalled. We missed a field goal the first time down and we turned the ball over on downs inside their 20. And at the end of the game we didn’t punch it in.”

Brenden Lovell and Blake Rankin connected for a pair of touchdowns to help lead the Bulldogs the Wolverine Conference victory.

The second touchdown, from 27 yards out, came with six seconds remaining in the first half and changed the complexion of the game.

“The score before the half hurt a lot,” Stanger said. “We can’t give that up because then it’s a 10-7 game instead of 17-7. We got our feet under us defensively in the second half.”

After Joe Brady had kicked a 37-yard field goal for the Bulldogs (1-0) in the first quarter, the Chieftains got on the board in the second period as Kevin Whitaker capped off a drive with an 11-yard run.

Gage Williams, who misfired on a field goal in the opening quarter, connected on the extra point and gave Dowagiac a 7-3 lead.

Vicksburg took a 10-7 lead when Rankin hauled in a Lovell 18-yard touchdown pass.

The two defenses began to stiffen and it took a blocked punt by the Bulldogs to set up the game’s final touchdown drive.

Lovell and Rankin hooked up again and Vicksburg took a 10-point lead into the half.

Both teams have opportunities to score in the second half, but failed to capitalize.

Dowagiac made one last-ditch effort to earn the opening night victory, but its last-minute drive ended with another missed field goal attempt.

The Chieftains would finish the night with 50 more yards of total offense than the Bulldogs (282-232).

Dowagiac rushed for 234 yards, led by Whitaker, who finished with 90 yards on 15 carries.

Stanger said he was pleased with the play of Murphy, especially since he was thrust into the position of playing most of the game.

“He had only been playing quarterback since two-a-days,” he said. “I will tell you right now, Caleb was looking at playing less than a quarter to a quarter of the snaps coming into tonight. I give Caleb a lot of credit. We basically had him penciled in as our defensive end. He handled it very well. He has been a wide out and a running back in our system. He has never been a quarterback.”

Lovell threw for 144 yards as he completed 11-of-18 passes.

Dowagiac is home again next week as it hosts South Haven Thursday night.

 

VICKSBURG 17, DOWGIAC 7

At Dowagiac

Vicksburg       3          14        0          0 – 17

Dowagiac        0          7          0          0 – 7

V – Joe Brady 37 field goal.

D – Kevin Whitaker 11 run (Gage Williams kick).

V- Blake Rankin 18 pass from Brenden Lovell (Brady kick).

V – Rankin 27 pass from Lovell (Brady kick).

Varsity records: Vicksburg 1-0, Dowagiac 0-1.