Suwanee, Ga. – “Murphy Who?”
That’s the banner that greeted the Murphy Bulldogs as they took the field against the Georgia Force Christian Blue Knights on Friday night. However, after the Bulldogs walloped the Blue Knights 40-9, it’s safe to say the Knights who Murphy is today.
On the Bulldogs’ first two offensive possessions of the game, Murphy senior running backs Devonte Murray and Justice Dorsey set the tempo. Murray took the handoff on the Dogs’ opening play and sprung around the right side of the offensive line, finding the sideline and detonating for an 80-yard touchdown dash that send the Blue Knights a message.
Get ready to run.
“That meant a lot to us,” Murray said of the Knight’s banner and the Dogs’ strong start.
“Coming off of a state championship and having a team say that about us really got us fired up. That’s why we came out the way we did.”
Just a few minutes later, after the Murphy defense halted a Georgia Force drive, Dorsey decided to one-up Murray. Dorsey took the ball on a sweep and escaped down the left sideline, leaving multiple Blue Knights defenders chasing him down the field and into the end zone for an 89-yard scoring sprint.
“That’s pretty much our goal to come out and set the tempo like that,” Dorsey said. “He gets a long run, then that fuels me to get a long run and the other backs come in and try and do the same thing.”
Bulldogs head coach David Gentry said the start of Murphy’s victory went exactly according to plan.
“We script our first eight plays, and you never know how those first eight plays are going to go,” he said. “We moved the ball really well, and that was something that I was pleased with because we’ve been coming out slow. I think we started right off the bat and played well in the first half.”
Murphy would score three more times on the ground in the remainder of the game, with Ray Rathburn, Murray and Chandler Wood punching in short touchdown runs in the second, third and fourth quarters, respectively. Murray led all Bulldog ball carriers with 180 yards rushing on 13 carries, but Dorsey (95 yards on three carries), Rathburn (94 yards on nine carries) and Wood (81 yards on 13 carries) all turned in strong performances.
Quarterback Kellen Rumfelt threw for 84 yards on 6-12 passing and executed an impressive Murphy scoring drive in the final minute of the second quarter. Rumfelt led the Bulldogs down the field, finding Murray in the end zone for a short touchdown with three seconds left on the clock.
The Murphy defense turned in another strong performance, holding the Blue Knights to only three points (Georgia Force’s touchdown was scored on a kickoff return) and 2-10 on third-down conversions.
Through the Bulldogs’ three wins to open the season, Murphy has only allowed opposing offenses to score scoring a whopping 10 points.
“Well, our up-front is pretty good,” Gentry said of the team’s defensive start to the season. “That kind of sets the tone of your defense if they’re getting read to pass and you get your pass rush on them and they can’t run a whole lot. So I think up front has been our strong point.”
Dallas Rayburn and Chandler Wood finished with two sacks apiece.
Colliding with Christ School
The Bulldogs host the Christ School Greenies (2-0), who feature former Tennessee Vols star and U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler’s son, Appalachian State quarterback commit Navy Shuler. Last season with the Greenies, Shuler threw for 4,112 yards with 44 touchdowns.
Gentry stressed that the Bulldogs would need to focus on strengthening their pass defense during the week of practice prior to the game.
“Pass defense and pass rush will be two of them (things Murphy will focus on in practice this week),” Gentry said. “I mean, we’ve got to emphasize that because we’re going up against a real good passer.”