EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) – Last Friday, the Bosse Bulldogs collected their first win of the season, matching their win total from 2022. But this team did not just beat the Central Bears last week, they dominated them. Head coach of the Bulldogs, Stephan Mullen, worked hard to get his players ready for Friday’s game.
“You know, our kids prepared all week,” Mullen said. “They did a great job of preparing all week with knowing where the heat was going to be. We had to push our practices back a little later in the night, which really didn’t affect us too much. The kids also did a great job of staying hydrated all week. That way we didn’t really have to deal with any cramps on Friday, which it was a great surprise. I think we had one cramp the whole night. And that kid tends to cramp when it’s 30 degrees outside. So we can’t expect them to, but we’re prepared to have pickle juice and stuff like that so we could get rid of those cramps and we were able to get him back in the game. Even so, I think that helped us a lot of guys stayed healthy the whole game. Didn’t really complain at all about the Heat because we’ve been practicing during that time all week.”
One of the premier pieces of the offense is the quarterback, Elijah Wagner. He racked up four touchdowns and 336 all purpose yards. His performance was special but Mullen knew what was in his bag of tricks before he laced up his cleats last week.
“We knew Elijah was capable of that [performance],” Mullen said. “He kind of had a slow start there last week. He kind of had just those, you know, first game jitters. But we knew Elijah’s fully capable of that. We saw a little bit of it last year. I mean, we see it every day in practice as well as scrimmages. So we’re just glad he put it all together and use the weapons around them. We’re proud. It was a whole team effort, but he definitely had a great night.”
With Castle ahead of the Bulldogs on Friday, there is a big emphasis on stopping the run. North was able to in week one but Mater-Dei could not keep up with the Knights at the line of scrimmage. That is one of the primary focuses of Bosse this week as they prepare to go over .500 for the first time since August 27, 2021.
“We definitely need to stop the run,” Mullen said. “That’s been since I’ve been here. That’s kind of been our thing. You know, we get beat a lot on the run, so it’s something we preach every day in practice getting in, 11 hands on the ball and flying around because you can’t just have one guy at the point of attack to be successful with some of these athletes. And the size. So we try to get as many hats to the ball, make sure we’re doing great form tackling that way. We’re able to get guys down and kind of limit their drives when they’re trying to run the ball.
