CELINA-Trousdale County jumped to an early five-touchdown lead and improved their record to 4-1 with a 55-8 thrashing of Clay County here Friday night. 

The Yellow Jackets scored a touchdown on defense, converted another Bulldog turnover into an easy score, and returned a punt for a TD as part of a 35-point outburst in the first quarter against the Bulldogs. Trousdale led 42-0 at intermission.

Trousdale took the opening kickoff and went 62 yards in six plays, going up 7-0 with less than a minute and a half off the clock. They scored again just over a minute later, after recovering a Bulldog fumble on the ensuing kickoff, to go up 13-0. 

Joey Cox scored that second TD for the Yellow Jackets and added another at the 7:19 mark of the first quarter on a 54-yard punt return. It took only 16 seconds for Trousdale to score again, as Tacola Seay ripped the ball away from the Bulldog returner on the next kickoff and went 38 yards for a score. Cox later added another score on a 50-yard interception return in the second quarter. 

Clay County’s lone touchdown came on a one-yard dive by freshman William Meadows in the third quarter, as the Bulldog freshmen backfield drove down the field for a score. Freshman Mitch Waters had a 41-yard run as part of that drive, the longest Clay County play of the night. Frosh quarterback Alex McLerran scored the two-point conversion for the Bulldogs. 

The loss dropped the Bulldogs to 3-2 on the season, 2-2 in region play. This was the second time in three games Clay County had hosted a team ranked in the top five of the Associated Press poll in the 2A playoff classification. Friendship Christian dismantled Clay County two weeks ago. 

The Bulldogs will travel to Watertown next week. The Purple Tigers have won four in a row by very lopsided scores after losing their season opener, and are 3-0 in region play.