WINTERBORO – The Winterboro Bulldogs opened region play with a 38-0 victory over the Fayetteville Wolves Friday night at Winterboro Memorial Stadium.

The Bulldogs (1-1) got off to a slow start and traded punts with Fayetteville (0-2) for most of the first quarter. The home team also had a flurry of penalties throughout the game. The Bulldogs had five touchdowns called back for block in the back penalties.

Winterboro got on the board in the second quarter with a 3—yard run by sophomore Josh Taylor. The play was set up by a 23-yard run to put the Bulldogs in scoring position. Troy Garrett carried the ball across the goal line for the two-point conversion and Winterboro led 8-0 with 7:21 to go in the first half.

The Bulldogs found the end zone again on their next possession when Bacardy McClendon scored from 25 yards out. Taylor took the ball into the end zone for the two-point conversion and Winterboro led 16-0.

The Wolves couldn’t get anything accomplished on offense all night. Just when they appeared to be making progress, the Winterboro defense would step up and make plays.

The Bulldogs found the end zone again before halftime after Colby Maddox intercepted a pass from Fayetteville’s Andrew Scott. Winterboro started first and goal from the 9-yard line and Courtney Evans took the ball into the end zone on the first play from scrimmage. Troy Garrett ran the ball across the goal line for the two-point conversion to give Winterboro a 24-0 lead.

Winterboro’s first possession of the second half resulted in six points, but it was nearly a turnover. Taylor connected with Evans on a pass-play, but Evans lost the football about 20 yards away from the end zone. Luckily for the Bulldogs, Winterboro’s Maurice Mills scooped up the loose pigskin and scored the touchdown to finish a 61-yard play. Garrett took care of the two-point conversion to give Winterboro a 32-0 lead.

The Wolves were unable to take advantage of any of Winterboro’s penalties and turnovers throughout the game. Fayetteville head coach Chris Sherbert said his team took a step back Friday night.

“Winterboro is a good ball team, but they’re not 38-0 better than we are,” Sherbert said. “That’s something that we’ve got to instill in our kids, that we’ve got to come out and play ball every single day, every single moment. I don’t know why we weren’t ready to play ball when we got here. I thought we had a pretty good week of practice. Obviously it’s me and my coaches. We’re going to work hard; we’re not going to stop until we figure out what’s going on. We’re going to continue to work hard and do our best to get better each and every time. We took a step backwards today.”

Winterboro’s final score of the night came on a 70-yard punt return by Jay Vincent with 10:56 to go in the game. The extra-point attempt was no good.

“Five touchdowns called back on penalties is definitely something that we’ll have to correct going into next week’s game,” Winterboro head coach Adam Fossett said. “It seemed like every time we had something going good, boom, there was a penalty and it killed us. The kids did a great job coming back from the penalty and getting a first down. Then coming back from the next penalty and getting a first down. We started slow; that’s a concern. We’ve got to be a better starting team and we’ve got to finish off drives.”

Winterboro travels to Howell’s Cove next Friday to face the Talladega County Central Fighting Tigers. Fayetteville returns home to host Wadley on Friday.