The Tracy Bulldogs (1-0) won their first football game of the season against the Kimball Jaguars (0-1). The cross-town rivalry was a very tight game but the Bulldogs pulled away in the end with a 34-32 victory over the Jags.

The Bulldogs haven’t beaten the Jaguars since 2019, when Tracy High toppled Kimball 27-12.

A great turn out for the school’s Dog-Pound that cheered their school’s football team on. The theme was white-out, while the Jaguars were black-out. The stands were filled with students wearing white, cheering the Bulldogs on to defeat the Jags.

To start off the game, Kimball scored the first touchdown but missed the PAT, leading 6-0. Even though they started off slow, Kurtis Maynor, a senior on the team, scored the first touchdown for the Bulldogs in the second quarter plus Oluwasemilore Akinkeye, a junior, scored the PAT, putting the Bulldogs in the lead.

A great play by Isaac Salinas forced an interception late in the second quarter, putting the Bulldogs on offense. Cameron Ross, a Tracy senior, scrambled for a 20-yard gain, making it easy for Mason Meyers, a senior captain, to score the next touchdown.

After Kimball scored in the second and third, making the score 19-13, putting the Jaguars in the lead. Maynor made a 55 hard return into the Jaguar territory, setting up Ross to score the next touchdown to tie it up at 19-19. With Akinkeye as their kicker, he scored the PAT and put the Bulldogs ahead 20-19. Ross then scored again, sneaking in for his second rushing touchdown, pushing the Bulldogs ahead 26-19.

After the Tracy quarterback throws an interception, the Jags then caught up, 26-32, putting the Bulldogs through some stress. Fortunately, there was no need, because their leading scorer of the night, Ross, rushed 55-yards into the endzone. The score was now 32-32, and the bulldogs needed to score a two point conversion in order to take the lead.

Cameron Ross then made a 2-yard rush for the two-point conversion, putting the Bulldogs up 34-32. Garcia then grabbed a clutch interception deep in Jaguar territory with 9 minutes into the 4th. The Jags couldn’t catch up, leaving the score 34-32.

Ross was arguably the MVP of the game for the Bulldogs. He knew his team had some things to work on before their home game this Friday.

“We need to stop getting in fights with the other team because it puts our team in a bad position mentally,” Ross explained. “We need to have better execution on our plays and we need to make better decisions in crunch time.”

Ross believes his team will be better prepared Friday against Bishop O’Dowd football team, coming all the way from Oakland with their opening game against the Bulldogs.

Kickoff between the Bulldogs and Dragons will be 7:00 p.m. at the Wayne Schneider Stadium.