The Bulldogs are ready to clip the wings of the Golden Eagles come Friday night when they travel to East Davidson High School.

Like the Bulldogs, East Davidson also rallied to win its season opener against Randleman. The Eagles scored a 19-14 victory.

The ’Dogs 16-7 victory over Ledford Aug. 21 was much more sure footed.

The visitors’ stands were packed as Trinity accumulated 311 yards to Ledford’s 208, but neither team had much success moving the ball early in the game. The scoreboard, however, did not remain dormant.

With less than a minute left to play in the half, Ledford began to steadily drive toward the end zone. After two attempts from the 13-yard line, Panther quarterback Steven Fuquay completed a pass to Jonathan Shelton and the home team was on the board. The extra point attempt was good and Ledford led 7–0. Trinity answered with a beautiful field goal by No. 22 Ron Griffin and the score was 7–3 as the clock buzzed to end the first half.

Trinity claimed possession of the ball a large part of the third quarter and well into the fourth as they continually stayed deep in Panther territory. But after several unsuccessful attempts at scoring and quarterback Rhyne Kivett’s incomplete pass to Ryan Spencer at the goal line, Bulldog fans feared that history was about to repeat itself. “Ledford’s had our number for the last few years,” explained Trinity Coach Alex Mebane. “Two of the last three years we’ve got them down in the fourth quarter and have not been able to hang on.”

This year proved to be a different story, however.

The Aug. 21 game started out under sweltering, unbearable conditions. But even when the sun fell behind the horizon, the Bulldogs continued to turn up the heat. With 7:44 left on the clock, Kivett came through with a quarterback keeper and added an additional 6 points to the board.

But the ’Dogs didn’t stop there. They continued to chip away at the Panthers’ defense and their wall came tumbling down. With less than two minutes left to play, Kivett handed off to No. 20, Angelo Dunn, who sprinted into the promised land.

The workhorse of the evening totaled 18 carries for 140 yards. Griffin tacked on an extra point with the kick giving Trinity a comfortable 16–7 lead.

The ’Dogs defense stopped the Panthers in their tracks on the 1-yard line as Ledford gave one final attempt at scoring with 10 seconds left on the clock.

“We’ve faced a lot of adversity,” said Mebane. “But we overcame it. Our kids hung together and we’re very pleased.”

The exhausted, but elated center, Theron Williamson said, “It feels good to start off the season undefeated. Coach Mebane has taught us ‘to believe is to see.’

“We believed in each other tonight and you saw what happened.”