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NEDERLAND – Ja’coryn Baker and Alex Eugene each scored a pair of first-half touchdowns as the Memorial Titans overcame a sluggish start to roll to a 54-26 victory over the host Nederland Bulldogs on Friday night.

Nederland (0-2) roared out to a 12-0 lead less than four minutes into the game on a pair of big plays.

KJ Tezeno scored on a 60-yard pass from Ayden Sunday to give Nederland a 6-0 lead with 8:54 remaining in the first quarter. Just 50 seconds later, Albert Simon stripped the ball from Nederland and scampered 45 yards to make it 12-0 Bulldogs.

“We got off to a bit of a sloppy start,” Memorial coach Brian Morgan said. “We have some things we need to clean up, but I was really happy with our effort tonight. We did a lot of good things.”

After that, it was all Titans (2-0). Eugene scored on a pair of 5-yard runs before the opening quarter was over. Sandwiched in between Eugene’s two TDs was a 23-yard scoring pass from Cobe Stoever to Brayton Chaney.

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Baker scored on a 22-yard pass from Stoever and on a 2-yard run in the second quarter. The Titans also got a safety thanks to a bad snap by Nederland to take a commanding 37-12 lead into the locker room.

The Titans led 47-26 after three quarters and put an exclamation mark on the win when Eugene scored his third touchdown of the contest, this time on a 91-yard run with less than three minutes remaining.

Eugene ended the day with 133 rushing yards.

Nederland’s Hubert Thomas had an electrifying 71-yard touchdown run for the Bulldogs, who opened the season against powerful West Orange-Stark. Next week, Nederland travels to Silsbee to face another formidable task.

“You could schedule games against teams you could beat 50-0, but we won’t ever do that,” Nederland coach Monte Barrow said. “We know these games are tough, but they will help make us better.”

Thomas had 157 yards on the ground for the Bulldogs.

“This was a physical game,” Barrow said. “We knew it would be that way coming in.

Memorial’s Morgan was happy about his team’s 2-0 start.

“We’re coming together,” he said. “We didn’t let that slow start get us down. We hung tough and did a lot of good things tonight.”

Memorial             21           16           10           7             — 54

Nederland           12           0             14           0             — 26

1st Quarter 

Ned – Tezeno 60 pass from Sunday (kick failed), 8:54

Ned – Simon 45 fumble return (kick failed), 8:04.

Mem – Eugene 5 run (Salgado kick), 6:09.

Mem – Chaney 23 pass from Stoever (Salgado kick), 1:50.

Mem – Eugene 5 run (Salgado kick), 0:47.

2^nd Quarter 

Mem – Baker 22 pass from Stover (Salgado kick), 4:31.

Mem – Safety, snap out of end zone, 4:05.

Mem – Baker 2 run (Salgado kick), 1:59.

3^rd Quarter 

Mem – Stoever 5 run (Salgado kick), 10:02.

Ned – Thomas 78 run (Resch kick), 9:02.

Mem – FG, Salgado 30, 5:14.

Ned – Sunday 28 run (Resch kick), 1:44.

4^th Quarter 

Mem – Eugene 91 run (Salgado kick), 2:42.

— Written by Pat Murray