Mission falls to Troy

TROY - Down 16-0 after the first quarter Friday night against Troy, it would have been easy for the Mission Bulldogs to roll over and play dead. Instead, the team came roaring back with two touchdown runs by Dylan Evans and cut things to 16-13.

"We were in the game the whole time," Mission head coach Peter Hamilton said. "We were just up to our old tricks again."

Those old tricks were small mistakes that cost the Bulldogs. Despite having the defense stuff Troy in the second quarter, they answered right back with a 83-yard kickoff return before the half and also had two punts within the Bulldogs' ten yard line in the game.

"It hurt a lot," Hamilton said. "That takes the wind out of your sails."

Mission would score again in the fourth quarter as junior Kyle Mitchell ran it in from three yards out. However, the Bulldogs (1-1 overall, 0-1 conference) couldn't overcome the four unanswered touchdowns before that in a 40-21 loss.

"We struggled with the little things," Hamilton said.

Hamilton felt that the mistakes were something that would be easily fixable in practice and that the team should be better next Friday.

"We're coming off a loss so it will be whoever is hungrier," he said.

Junior running back Scotty Gilleard ran 21 times for 100 yards and senior back Chris McKay had 100 yards on 12 carries.

Junior linebacker Josh Durglo had 10 tackles to lead the defense and sophomore end Nikko Alexander had nine tackles. Sophomore linebacker Barret Sargent had eight.

"We just need to come out with more and start hitting on that first play," Hamilton said. "We're an emotional team. We're either hot or cold."

Mission will play Deer Lodge next Friday on the road.