Bison stumble in home opener

Aaron Bell gains hardearned yards at Friday night’s game against Lovelady. Van’Go’photo The Lovelady Lions proved that their state-ranking is well deserved when they came to town Friday evening and handed the Buffalo Bison a humbling defeat. BHS had high hopes for the home opener, coming off of a high-scoring victory last week. This week, however, miscues, penalties and errors proved very costly to the Bison and they came out on the losing end of the scoreboard, 7-49.

Things looked promising early in the game. The Bison received the ball and picked up four first downs. QB Jordan Canady crossed the goal line on a 41-yard scamper but a holding call nullified the score. Dominic Jackson's punt appeared to be stopped short of the goal line by Andrew Houston, trapping the Lions deep in their end of the field, but the call was a touchback. Lovelady scored a few plays later on an 18-yard run.

Varsity cheerleader Laken McCabe pumps up spirit for BHS. The teams traded turnovers in the next mnutes. Buffalo senior Aaron Bell, who rarely fumbles, coughed up the ball. Lovelady tried to strike quickly by throwing deep over the middle and Bell redeemed himself by going high in the air for a onehanded interception.

The BHS offense could not generate any momentum and their 4th-down punt was returned for a 44-yard touchdown, putting LHS up 14-0 with 2:22 still left in the first quarter. Buffalo fumbled away their next possession, and Lovelady again capitalized with a scoring drive early in the second. The PAT went wide.

Buffalo's offense was again limited to four-and-out, and the Lions mounted another scoring drive, adding eight points to their lead.

Dakota Champion ran the ensuing kickoff back to the L-37, giving the Bison good field position for their next drive. Aurelio Dominguez ran for a first down. Canady completed a pass to Bell for another. A facemask call on the Lions got the Bison half-the-distance-to-thegoal, where freshman Jose Dominguez was able to punch it in on a 5-yard carry. Rigo Andrade kept his season perfect with the PAT kick and the Bison had closed the gap to 28-7 with 2:34 left in the first half.

Van’Go’photo Defender Aurelio Dominguez was slung around, but hung on for this 4th quarter tackle. The fired-up Bison defense gave up nothing, and the Lions were quickly punting from 4th-and-9. Canady took his offense to the air and completed a pass to Jose Dominguez. His next pass was picked off, however, and Lovelady scored again just a few plays later.

Ryan Read returned the short kick to the Bison 40-yard-line. With one second on the clock, Canady completed a Hail Mary pass to Bell. As Bison fans tried to will him into the end zone, Bell was able to evade tacklers all the way down to the 3-yard line, but no more.

The Belles and Bison Band made their 2009 debut Friday. Lovelady scored TD #5 in the opening moments of the second half. Buffalo re- sponded by mounting a solid drive anchored by the running of Aurelio Dominguez. They strung together four first downs and were knocking at the goal line when they lost the handle and Lovelady recovered inside the 10. The teams traded short possessions, then traded fumbles, with Jonathan Cates recovering one for BHS. Daniel Vazquez also had some big tackles for the Bison defense late in the game.

Lovelady blocked a punt and ran it back for a late touchdown, making the final score 49-7.

Canady was the leading rusher with 82 yards rushing. Aurelio Dominguez had 69 yards in 19 carries. The Bison had 86 yards in the air and a total of 370 offensive yards. “We just couldn’t get it to the end zone, where we needed to,” noted Coach Mark Read.

It was a long night for Bison fans, but ball boy Sergio Vazquez, (brother of #55 Daniel Vazquez), and ALL the BHS fans will be back to cheer on their Buffalo Bison. Van’Go’photo After the game Coach Read told his players, "There are two ways to go from here: Come out Monday and go to work to learn from our mistakes, or dwell on this loss."

Let's all follow the Bison to Elkhart Friday and show the team and coaches that we are behind them as they shoot to get back in the Win column.