By Dan Pearson
For the News-Gazette

St. Cloud and Agape Christian was a pretty even match offensively, but on defense, special teams and the intangibles, it all belonged to St. Cloud, as the Bulldogs forced five turnovers to win, 39-8, at Gannarelli Field last week.

“We made some mistakes, but I thought we played really well,” first-year St. Cloud Head Coach Brad Lennox said of his 1-1 club. “Defensively we gave up some yardage, but when they got near the goal line, we made some plays.”

Four times Agape had first-and-goal situations inside the Bulldogs’ 10 but would come away with just one touchdown and only six points.

Taking the opening kickoff, the Bulldogs drove 40 yards on six plays to take a 7-0 lead. Eric Pfeifer capped the drive on a 6-yard run at the 9:35 mark of the first quarter.

St. Cloud fumbled at its 2 on its next possession and Agape scored to close the gap to 7-6.

St. Cloud made it 14-6 a few minutes later when Austin Ocasio stepped in front of a James Reese screen pass and returned it five yards for a touchdown. After holding the Saints on downs, the Bulldogs put together their most impressive drive of the season, traveling 97 yards on 13 plays, to take a 22-6 lead on Pfeifer’s 6-yard run.

Agape might have close the gap, but when running back Michael Tillman broke loose and appeared headed for an easy 68-yard touchdown run, the Dogs’ E.J. McKenzie ran Tillman down from his left corner position – dragging him down at the 4.  Four plays later, Mckenzie’s hustle paid off when Shaquan Drayton intercepted James Reese in the end zone to stop the threat.

“In the course of any game, there are going to be some plays that won’t necessarily show up on the stats sheet but are vitally important to a team’s success,” Lennox said.  “E.J. running down that kid was a huge play.  Agape scores on that play and they are back in the game.”

The Bulldogs put it away in the third quarter when senior kicker Nick Askey nailed a 41-yard field goal to up the St. Cloud lead and Reinhart drilled a 14-yard touchdown pass to junior Mark Bell.  Andrew Bogaenko tacked on the extra point and the Bulldogs led, 32-6. Pfeifer scored his third touchdown of the game from seven yards out to wrap it up.

The Bulldogs travel to Gateway Friday at 7:30 p.m.

“It will be a great challenge for us,” Lennox said.  “Marlin (Roberts) is an outstanding coach and the Panthers are really athletic.  But we are looking forward to the challenge.  We will have to clean up some of our mistakes and build off of the effort we gave (Friday).”