Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

STAR CORRESPONDENT

The Hampton Bulldogs will look to take on their third region 1-2A conference foe on Friday night as they travel to Maryville to take on Eagleton Academy. The ‘Dogs (4-2 overall, 2-0 conference) are riding a three game win streak and come off a 50-6 non-conference win over Cloudland.

Eagleton (2-3 overall, 1-1 conference) took a 21-20 win last week over Wartburg but fell to Happy Valley two weeks ago 38-12. In that contest, junior QB Nathan Clemmer rushed for 143 yards and a touchdown and passed for 64 yards and a score on 10-for-20 passing.

“They have some good looking kids,” Bulldogs head coach Michael Lunsford said. “Some of them are first year varsity football players, but they play hard.”

The Bulldogs have hit their stride offensively over the last three weeks with conference wins over Happy Valley (36-0), Cumberland Gap (69-28) and the non-region match with the Highlanders. Junior RB Dominique Burleson rushed for 138 yards and two touchdowns as Hampton rode roughshod over Cloudland.

That game seemed to signal a newfound respect for the Bulldogs offensive line which had received some criticism over the first few weeks of the season but coach Lunsford said, “These kids have expectations to live up to and you never seem to hear anything about a teams offensive line unless it is bad. They have all been willing to work hard to get better and that’s what you look for every week.”

Senior QB Dylan Trivett has taken the leadership reins and has produced some impressive numbers in the last three weeks. Trivett rushed for 65 yards and two touchdowns and completed 10-for-18 passing for 135 yards in the win at Happy Valley.

At Cumberland Gap, Trivett finished 7-for-9 passing for 124 yards and three touchdowns.

When asked how Trivett has shown his leadership, Lunsford said, “Just today after practice, Dylan stayed another 45 minutes to throw passes and work on route running with the guys. And J.J. McElyea had one of his better games last week. There is always stuff to work on and there is always room for improvement and these guys get that and they want to get better.”

Game time is 7 pm.