The Douglas Bulldogs suffered their eighth straight loss Friday night falling 49-28 to the Pueblo Warriors.

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The 28 points scored by Douglas was a season high for the Bulldog offense. Next up for the winless Bulldogs is the all important showdown with Bisbee scheduled for this Friday night at Douglas High School. Kickoff will be 7 p.m.

This year’s meeting will be the 142nd between the two schools. Douglas won last year's game 35-13 reclaiming the Copper Pick it had lost the year before. Friday’s game will also be Mom and Dad’s night for the DHS seniors.

Bisbee, like Douglas, is struggling this year coming off a 39-6 loss to Willcox that dropped the Pumas to 1-7 on the season.

“We are just going to go after Douglas with what we do best and that’s run the football. They key for us is gap security. And our tackling, we are going to work on that all week. We’ve just got to execute,” Bisbee football coach Chris Vertrees told the Sierra Vista Herald after Friday’s loss.

The Bulldogs took the opening drive of Friday night’s game and drove 67 yards in 10 plays scoring when quarterback Blaze Rose completed an eight yard TD pass to Fernando Chacon. Rose’s extra point kick gave Douglas a brief 7-0 lead.

What momentum the Dogs had gained from that score was quickly extinguished by Pueblo when on its first play from scrimmage junior running back Vincent Palma, who has ties to Douglas, broke free against a man short Bulldog defense for a 68-yard touchdown quickly tying the game at 7-7.

Pueblo would score again in the first quarter and tack on another TD in the second taking a 21-7 lead.

Rose then pulled the Bulldogs back within seven when he scored on a 28-yard run. His extra point cut the Warriors lead to 21-14.

Pueblo needed just two plays on the ensuing drive to get back into the end zone taking a 28-14 lead at the half.

The Warriors took the opening drive of the second half and punched it in for six increasing their lead to 35-14.

Rose would hit Grant Watkins for two scores in the second half the first coming with 4:42 remaining in the third on a 39-yard TD pass the other on a 59-yard strike with just under two minutes gone in the fourth. The second touchdown cut Pueblo’s lead to 42-28.

The Warriors would score once more before the game ended and showed some real sportsmanship in the final seconds taking a knee on three straight plays from the Bulldog 25 before turning the ball back over to Douglas with six seconds remaining.

Palma would finish with 231 yards on 15 carries and three TD’s as the Warriors improved to 3-5 with the win. Led by Palma who had TD runs of 68, 65 and 30 yards Pueblo pounded out 391 yards on the ground. Freshman Jorge Romero had 121 yards on 20 carries and a TD.

After Bisbee the Bulldogs close out the season at Cienega.

Freshmen and JV

Hit hard by injuries and ineligibility the Douglas junior varsity cancelled the rest of its season last week. The remaining five players were moved down to the freshman level to finish the season.

The young Bulldogs showed what they were made of last Thursday taking on Pueblo’s junior varsity and coming away with a 27-12 win.

The Bulldogs took the opening kickoff and received the ball only to have the drive stall. Opting to punt, the Bulldogs gave up the first points of the game when Pueblo returned the punt 65 yards back for a score taking a quick 6-0 lead.

After that Douglas never looked backed. On the next drive, Ernesto Loreto would connect with Jacob Ortega on a 51 yard touchdown pass. Ortega would also convert the extra point making the score 7-6. On the next drive Loreto would again find Ortega this time for a 16 yard touchdown pass that would increase the Dogs lead to 14-6.

The next score came from the Bulldogs own side of the field when Loreto once again found Ortega on an out route. Ortega was able to out run the Pueblo secondary as he raced down the sideline for a 63 yard touchdown giving Douglas a 21-6 halftime lead.

A Pueblo TD in the third cut Douglas’ lead to 21-12. Douglas would respond in the fourth when Estrada scored on a 31-yard run.

The Douglas freshmen/junior varsity close out their season this Thursday at 6 p.m. in Bisbee.