The Barometer Online

Issue date: 4/22/09 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Cory Reed Quarterback Kevin Younger of the Benton Bulldawgs looks downfield during a 31-28 victory over the South Valley Vandals.

It's 7 p.m. on Saturday night and just about everyone in Corvallis is on couches, drinking a beer and watching the Blazers game. Everyone, that is, except for the rowdy crowd at Corvallis High School watching the semi-pro, nine-man football team, the Benton Bulldawgs.

A member of the National Nine-man Football League, the Benton Bulldawgs aren't exactly your typical football team. Made up of a mixture of Oregon State students playing in the league for the first time and veterans with jobs and families of their own who have played in the league for up to eight years.

"A lot of the guys didn't really know each other at first," first-year Bulldawgs head coach Mike Henry said. "But now they're all coming together like a big football family."

Just one game into the season, the Bulldawgs have come together strong enough to start the year with an exciting 31-28 victory over the South Valley Vandals on Saturday night - a pretty big stepping stone for a team that was shaking hands for the first time a couple weeks ago.

"I want us to succeed and I am very, very pleased with what we put together this year," Bulldawgs player representative Joel Meacham said. "I think we're going to have an outstanding season. We didn't even play our best football last week and we beat one of the best teams in the league. For us to not play our best and go out there and win a game like that was pretty cool."

When the Bulldawgs do put their best game together, the team should put on quite a spectacle, as there are more than its share of proven playmakers on the team's roster.

A couple of familiar faces to football fans in Corvallis are two guys notorious for keeping the Corvallis High School scorekeeper busy in their high school days and who are now continuing to do the very same as Bulldawgs. Quarterback Kevin Younger and wide receiver Darrell Watkins may have graduated from Corvallis High School, but continue to leave their mark on the school's field.

"It's nice playing on the same field - it feels like I'm still in high school," Younger said. "Darrell and I pretty much know exactly what both of us are going to do on every play, so I just try and get him the ball whenever he asks for it."

Continued...

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