Junior Trelen Cox of King’s Fork High School received the opening kickoff from host Deep Creek High School on Thursday night and returned it 84 yards for a touchdown, and things just kept rolling from there for the Bulldogs.

When the Hornets’ ensuing drive stalled, a botched snap on the punt allowed Bulldogs sophomore Deshaun Wethington to gain possession and return it 24 yards for another score.

The Bulldogs had a bad snap of their own on an extra point, but senior kicker Austin Wall grabbed it and threw a two-point conversion to junior Tyler Brown.

“It’s not often we’re up 15-0 nothing before the offense touches the ball,” KF head coach Joe Jones said.

The Bulldogs went on to a 50-6 season-opening win at Nathan T. Hardee Stadium, benefiting from three special teams touchdowns, three offensive scores and one by the defense.

“We came out strong and jumped on them quick; that was our game plan,” Jones said. “We played good, intense football.”

As the first quarter progressed, the offense eventually put points on the board by way of senior quarterback Uriah Adams’ two-yard scoring run, set up by a sizable gain from Wethington, a sophomore feature back.

Despite the lopsided score, Deep Creek enjoyed some offensive success, generating 18 first downs to King’s Fork’s eight. They also held an advantage in time of possession: 28:24 to 19:24.

While the Hornets were often undone by their own miscues, Jones praised his team for often being the cause of the miscues, and said, “We turned them into touchdowns.”

Still in the first quarter, Tyler Brown blocked a punt that senior Jonathan Holloway scooped up and returned about 10 yards for another score.

“Getting 29 points in the first quarter is always a plus,” Jones said, but evaluating the whole game, he acknowledged the offense needs work.

“We had some three-and-outs, and we just can’t do that,” he said.

Uriah Adam echoed this assessment when relaying how he felt about the game: “Productive. Still got wrinkles to get out, though. A lot of wrinkles as far as (offense).”

He helped illustrate what an ironed-out performance looks like, though, near the end of the first half. He made the halftime score 36-0 by connecting with junior wide receiver/defensive back Camryn Little for a perfectly coordinated 18-yard touchdown pass to the right edge of the end zone.

“It was trust,” Adams said.

“The chemistry was there,” Little added.

Jones highlighted Little, saying, “I like how he played offensively and defensively.”

Deep Creek scored on a 25-yard touchdown pass early in the third quarter, but the Bulldogs managed to spoil the extra point when junior speedster TyQuan Weston came off the edge and easily blocked it.

Wethington racked up 176 yards rushing on 11 carries for the night. He accumulated 71 of those yards in the third quarter off a touchdown run in which he ran left near the sideline and cut back past everyone across the field to find daylight.

The final touchdown came after a Deep Creek fumble that senior defensive end Amonte Wilkins recovered in the end zone.

Jones singled out Holloway for his defensive play and also sophomore linebacker Notorious Brown, saying “He’s really going to be a good one. He did a lot of good things in there.”

Jones did cite the need for better discipline on defense, however.

“We’ve got to improve on penalties,” he said. “I think we had five or six pass interference penalties on us.”

The Bulldogs (1-0) host Woodrow Wilson High School next Friday.