Navarro Football: Bulldogs celebrate Bulldog Hall of Fame Weekend with 44-13 romp over Blinn

Oct. 1—Navarro's rising Bulldogs took another leap in their season Saturday at Community National Bank & Trust Stadium, where they hammered Blinn 44-13 to celebrate Bulldog Hall of Fame Weekend.

The Bulldogs have been doing a lot of celebrating lately on their impressive three-game winning streak that included a 24-20 victory over then-No. 3 Kilgore a week ago on the road.

After a thorough and complete performance against Blinn (2-3, 0-2) on Saturday, the Dawgs might just climb back into the NJCAA's Division 1 Top 15 poll. They have received votes the previous two weeks after turning their season around, bouncing back from an 0-2 start that included a season opener loss to No. 1 Hutchinson. The Dawgs are now 3-2.

There's a lot of football left for the Dawgs who can still win the SWJCFC title. They're 2-1 and have three conference games left, including showdowns with two top 10 teams. They have a bye week next week before facing No. 9 Trinity Valley Oct. 14 in Athens and they play No. 7 Tyler in their season finale in Tyler on Nov. 4. Tyler is 2-0 and in first place in the SWJCFC.

Navarro started the 2019 season with an 0-3 record, and lost their quarterback during their third game, before both the team and quarterback Parker McNeil, who was the NJCAA's Offensive Player of the Year that season, came back with an inspirational run to win the title.

The program has a history of coming back, and the scenario seems to be coming into focus of late, including Saturday's dominating victory over Blinn.

The Dawgs never trailed against Blinn as quarterback Dane Jentsch came out throwing. He threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Bryan Spotwood with 10:57 left in the first and connected with Shawn Brown for an 18-yard TD less than two minutes later (9:03). Brandon Perez, who was perfect (6-for-6) on PATs, nailed both to give the Dawgs a 14-0 first quarter lead.

Braylon Finley led the Dawg receivers with five receptions for 64 yards, Brown caught three passes for 30, and Spotwood hauled in three more for 19 yards. Jentsch's longest completion was a 38-yarder to Jayden Jones.

Navarro's defense, which swarmed Blinn all afternoon, added two points with a safety early in the second quarter and the Dawgs led 16-3 at halftime before running away with the third quarter.

Asa Osbourne, who led the Bulldog ground game with 77 yards, ripped off a 41-yard TD run and Jentsch raced 11 yards for a touchdown to lift the Dawgs to a 30-3 cushion with 2:28 left in the third.

Then before you could sing "Turn out the lights" (or 10 seconds later) Jadarian Thursby picked off a pass and returned in 30 yards to give the Dawgs a 37-3 lead with 2:18 left in the third after the Dawg D held the Bucs scoreless in the quarter.

Jentsch sat down after completing 16 of 23 passes for 168 yards and two touchdowns and running for 12 yards and a TD with a very efficient and productive performance.

The Dawgs added a touchdown early in the fourth to make it a 44-3 game when D'Tyrian McCoy, who ran for 47 yards on five carries, blasted out of the backfield for a 41-yard TD run, which made a late Blinn touchdown pass and Max Nowak's second field goal of the game a footnote on the game and Navarro's comeback this season.