Following their first loss of the season, the Nederland Bulldogs (3-1, 2-1 in 22-5A)
hope to bounce back against the undefeated Vidor Pirates (2-0, 2-0) on Saturday.

The Bulldogs’ first loss came in a 13-7 decision at the hands of the
undefeated Port Arthur Memorial Titans on Monday.

Nederland head coach Monte Barrow said his team is ready to put the first
loss in the rearview mirror and move on to Vidor.

“We’ve preached to them about having a short memory, win or lose,” he said.
“We have to get rid of that and move on to the next opponent. It just happens to be a
little shorter week this week and another tough opponent in Vidor. I think (the
players) have done a good job on getting refocused on the task at hand.”

Slow starts by the Bulldog defense have plagued the team since the start of
division play. The Bulldogs allowed 24 first-quarter points over the last three games,
while only allowing 10 points in the second, third and fourth quarters in all of the
games combined.

“We’ve focused on it after the first two district games,” Barrow said. “We
really concentrated on starting fast. That’s been our mantra all week. We improved
on it. We held them to three points instead of giving up a touchdown. Holding a very
talented Port Arthur team to that was, maybe, a small victory in itself on the opening
drive.”

The Bulldogs will be tested on Saturday as the Pirates have scored 42 points
in each of their first two games this season and have outscored their competition
84-35.

Barrow said he believes playing the Titans helped his team prepare for the
physical style of play they will face against the Pirates.

“The offenses are totally different, but I think that the physicality that both of
those teams bring will be the same. We’re expecting a real physical contest.
Defensively, we like to think that we play pretty physically ourselves.”

The Bulldogs’ offense was prolific during the team’s first two district games
against Livingston and Baytown Lee, respectively. The Bulldogs’ quarterback
Blaysin Fernandez amassed 503 yards passing and nine touchdowns during those
two games. Fernandez was held to 122 yards and no scores.

Barrow said the Titans defense deserved the credit but that his team needs to
step up and be consistent.

“I don’t think [Memorial’s] stats are an anomaly,” he said. “It’s what they’ve
done all year and probably will continue to do. At the same time, we’ve got to find a
way to move the football more consistently against a good defense because we are
going to play good defenses the rest of the way in district. We went back to work
and focused on us. It’s always going to be about us, especially offensively. You’re
going to do what you do and we have to win more one-on-one matchups.”

The showdown is set for 2 p.m. Saturday at Pirate Stadium in Vidor.