Lemon Bay Manta Rays vs Desoto County Bulldogs

Englewood, Florida: The Lemon Bay Manta Rays opened their 2018 home schedule on Friday night with a district match-up against the neighboring Desoto County Bulldogs. The Mantas were looking for their first win of the 2018 season in front of their home crowd.  But the visiting Bulldogs were also hungry as they were looking to remain undefeated in the road.

Lemon Bay opened the game by forcing the Bulldogs to punt and then marching down the field to score.Senior quarterback Trevor Hedges went up the middle for a 1 yard touchdown run. A successful two point conversion gave the Manta Rays a 8-0 lead. The Manta Rays later doubled their score on a 65 yard touchdown run by Devanta Roberson and a two point conversion to make it 16-0.

The Bulldogs countered with an excellent punt return by Ethan Redden that went back and forth, side to side before hitting the end zone for a touchdown. But it was called back by a costly penalty.  But with 2:04 left in the first half, the Bulldogs marched down the field to score on a 12 yard touchdown run by Arnold Mele.  A failed conversion put just six on the board for Desoto.  The Bulldogs forced a quick possession and punt by Lemon Bay then marched down the field before time expired in the half, stranding the drive at the 5 yard line and sending both teams into the locker room with Lemon Bay holding a 16-6 lead.

The Manta Rays opened the second half with a 96 yard drive that ate up a bunch of clock and resulted in a 1 yard TD run by Hedges to increase the lead to 22-6.

From that point forward, the Bulldogs rallied from a sixteen point deficit to take the lead.  With :26 left to play in the third quarter, Mele scored his second touchdown of the night on a 61 yard scramble to put six more points on the board.  A fumble recovery by Nathan Rowe gave the Bulldogs six more and pulled them to within four points of the lead.  A  little later in the fourth quarter Mele scrambled for yet another touchdown, this time from 5 yards out to give the Bulldogs their first lead of the night.

The Bulldog defense held off the Mantas as Desoto County came from behind for a 24-22 comeback win.  Desoto County improved to 2-1 on the season as Lemon Bay fell to 0-3.

Click on the photo above to view my Lemon Bay/Desoto County photo gallery.



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