It was quite an opening night Friday for both the Hermiston Bulldogs and the newly-renovated Kennison Field.
A record crowd of 2,500 was on hand to witness the Bulldogs open the 2013 football season with a dominating performance over Rex Putnam. The Hermiston offense had its way with the Kingsmen and the defense played stingy all night long.
Early on, senior running back Costa Rodriquez scored on short runs to put Hermiston up 14-0. The first touchdown came on the Bulldogs’ first drive and the second came with just seconds left in the first quarter.
Then the floodgates opened. Less than a minute into the second quarter, with their backs to their own end zone, the Kingsmen fumbled the snap on an attempted punt and Hermiston recovered the ball in the end zone for their third score of the game. The extra point attempt failed.
With 5:28 left in the first half, quarterback Chase Knutz connected with wide receiver Ramon Contreras on a 23-yard pass (a two-point conversion was no good), to put Hermiston up 26-0. Rodriguez then took the ball on a 43-yard run with just under 3 minutes left and Cory Adams converted the 2-point attempt to put Hermiston up 34-0.
The Bulldogs got the ball back with less than a minute to go in the half and scored as time expired on a 28-yard pass from Knutz to Adams.
The Kingsmen finally got on the scoreboard midway through the third quarter when quarterback Josie Swain escaped a would-be tackler and sprinted down the left sidelines for a 19-yard touchdown run. Hermiston capped off the scoring when Adams scored to make it 48-7.
Rodriguez finished with 152 yards and three touchdowns while Knutz completed 18 of 29 pass attempts for 251 yards.
The Bulldogs hit the road next week to take on Hillsboro before playing host to defending 5A champs Sherwood the following week.
