King’s Fork High went on the road Friday and lost 45-17 to Grassfield High School. The Bulldogs are now 3-4.

Grassfield had momentum going into Friday night’s game. They have only one loss on the season, and Friday night was their homecoming.

A fast start Friday night put the Bulldogs in a position to make it a game against Grassfield. During the opening kickoff, the Bulldogs retuned the ball all the way to Grizzlies’ 10-yard line. They followed the big return with a touchdown by Darran Butts to give the Bulldogs a 7-0 lead. On the Grizzlies’ following possession, the Bulldogs got a stop and turned it into three more points to give them a 10-0 lead.

“We started fast,” Bulldogs coach Scottie Littles said. “Give Grassfield credit — they responded when they needed to. Their kids are battle tested.”

After 10 points in the first quarter, the Bulldogs did not score again until the fourth quarter. They had seven turnovers for the game. The Bulldogs defense allowed a 200-plus yard rusher for the second straight week.

“Our kids want to be so good; they care so much,” Littles said. “They want to be good now. We just have to continue to learn situational football. On defense, if its 3rd and 20 we need to know we don’t need to be aggressive, we just don’t need to let up 20 yards. On offense, if its 3rd and 15, we might not need the 15-yard play, let’s play the field position. Our team is young, and we are learning how to play through those situations.”

Grassfield did a good job containing Darran Butts after he previously ran for more than 200 yards in each of his last couple of games. The Bulldogs were led by Cherrod Joe who caught nine passes for 108 yards and a touchdown. Chris Shearin had 106 yards receiving as well. Quarterback Justin German threw for more than 200 yards and a touchdown. Dominique Langston had 15 tackles in his first varsity start at linebacker. Shearin was assigned the task to follow Grassfield standout safety/wide receiver and ODU commit Austin Wood and only allowed two catches for 30 yards.

Next for the Bulldogs is a game against rival Nansemond River. The Bulldogs want to win the city of Suffolk and have already defeated Lakeland this season. The game starts at 7 p.m. Oct. 21.