Editor’s note: This article is part of our “Throwback Thursday” series. This article is from out Sept. 16, 2006 files.

Andalusia didn’t waste anytime jumping all over an outmanned Opp squad, as the Bulldogs recovered an onside kick to open up the game and scored three plays later, going on to throttle Opp 56-17.

Michael Berry scored the first two touchdowns of the night, one coming on a 28-yard run on the opening drive and the other on a 46-yard punt return that put Opp into a 14-0 hole within the first five minutes of the game.

After jumping out to an early lead, things began to settle down a bit for the Bulldogs.

The defense did their job and held the Bobcats on their next possession, but the offense had trouble moving the football deep inside their own territory.

Andalusia began their possession on their own five, before Ladarrius McNeil carried the ball for five yards up the 10-yard line. However, quarterback Matt Mellown was sacked on the next play and the Bulldogs were forced to punt.

DeAndre Wright did his job, blasting the ball 45 yards and Opp took over on the 50-yard line.

Opp running back Danshay Edwards would then carry for 13 yards on the next two plays and Andalusia found themselves inching closer to their own end zone.

A Cady Hall completion to Rodney Colston would move Opp all the way to the Bulldog 11 and it looked like the Bobcats might cut into the Andy lead by half.

But the Bulldog defense buckled down, forcing Opp into a fourth-and-seven and only allowed three points to the Bobcats to make the score 14-3.

A 30-yard run by Berry on the ensuing kickoff would then take some the sting off of the Opp field goal and would pave the way for seven more Bulldog points.

The Andy drive began on the 40 and McNeil quickly made his presence felt with three punishing runs that combined for 27 yards.

But then the Andy offense bogged down. Opp held Andalusia to only three yards on the next three plays and eventually forced the Bulldogs into the fourth-and-14 from the Opp 25-yard line.

Andalusia decided to go for it and Mellown placed a swing pass into the awaiting arms of McNeil who then scampered to the end zone to put the Bulldogs up 21-3.

James Hogg, Nico Johnson and Brannon Bryan then began to punish the Opp offensive line as the trio continually found themselves deep in the Opp backfield.

With the defense playing shut down ball the offense would have the chance to score 28 unanswered points pushing their lead all the way to 49-3.

The Andy offense began right where they had left off the last drive, with Mellown continuing to go to the air.

He would throw a strike to Wright to move the ‘Dogs into the red zone before connecting with Billy Moody to push Andalusia inside the 10-yard line. Wright would then hoop up with Mellown for the second time of the night, this time for an 8-yard touchdown pass that put Andalusia up 28-3 at halftime.

In the third quarter, Andalusia went back to their powerful ground game, with C.J. Richardson leading the ‘Dogs to their fifth touchdown of the night with a 27-yard run to the Opp 3-yard line. Berry would finish off the drive with his third touchdown of the night and the seventh in the past two games.

Mellow also go in on the action, as he struck the finishing blow against the Bobcats with a 35-yard run down the left sideline to put Andalusia up 49-3.

As the team did last week, Andalusia piled on the yards against their opponent, while holding the Bobcats to almost half that total.

The Bulldogs had 348 yards on the ground and 59 through the air to combine for 407 total yards, while Opp had 262.

While the offense has continued to evolve, head coach Tom Causey knows that it can get better.

“We still had a couple of turnovers, still had some missed checks at the line of scrimmage and missed reads,” Causey said. “Four or five of those could have been big plays. We still have a long way to go, we need to take care of us and get better,”

Though Andalusia had their highest completion number of the season with seven, the amount the Bulldogs pass depends entirely on who they play.

“They were trying to pack 11 folks in the box,” Causey said. “But once we got up 28-3, you didn’t want to throw it. We just took advantage of the fact that they were giving us an opportunity to air it out early in the game.”

With the win, Andalusia moves to 2-0 in the region and has a tight grasp of first place in the standings. Opp, will drop to 1-1 with the loss in the region and 1-2 overall.