The Magnolia Bulldogs crossed off a season-long goal of becoming city champions this past weekend — one they hadn’t been able to do for the past two years.
Magnolia won the 16th edition of the Magnolia Bowl against rival Magnolia West, 44-14, on Friday.
The Bulldogs did so by utilizing senior running back Hunter Andrews, who has been a machine the past three games. The three-star recruit and Utah commit rushed for 236 yards three weeks ago in a 42-35 triumph against Angleton and collected another 223 two weeks ago in a 33-22 win against Friendswood.
Andrews topped those performances with 275 yards on 20 carries while tying his career high with five touchdowns in the win over Magnolia West.
“He is certainly a guy that we lean on,” Magnolia coach Craig Martin said. “I think he’d be the first one to tell you he couldn’t do it without our offensive line, those guys have played really well, too. But he is certainly a kid that can carry you on offense and he’s our leader for a reason. The kids believe in him, and I think he’s just one of those guys that can take a team on his back and say, ‘Give me the ball and I’ll make something happen.’”
Magnolia picked up its fourth consecutive victory to move to 5-2 overall and 4-1 in district play. Andrews ran for three touchdowns in the first half behind an O-line that features a trio of returning starters, before adding two more in the second half to help the Bulldogs bring home the Mag Bowl trophy for the first time since 2020.
“I got to thank my O-line because they’re some dogs and they block really good for me,” said Andrews, who crossed the 1,000-yard rushing mark for the second consecutive season in the win to go with 13 touchdowns so far.
“I’m really thankful for them this year.”
Senior Tanner Whittington was limited at the quarterback position but effective after completing 4-of-8 passes for 48 yards with Todd Barretto hauling in a pair of catches. But Whittington has the ability to air it out as he threw for at least 179 yards and a touchdown in wins over Terry and Friendswood.
Andrews said every time the Bulldogs need something big, Whittington comes in clutch.
“Tanner’s done a great job for us this year,” Martin said. “He takes care of the football. We’ve tried to limit our turnovers for sure and he makes a lot of quality decisions out there. He makes all the calls; he makes all the line adjustments for us. He’s another big reason for our success.”
The Bulldogs would now like to cross off another goal they haven’t been able to achieve since 2020: the district title. Magnolia makes three goals going into each season, starting off with the city championship.
“Not everybody has a hometown rivalry like we do, so city champs is one of the things that we want to accomplish and really proud to be able to say that we are,” Martin said. “Goal number two is district championship, which I heard we’re still in the running for, and then state championships. None of those things are easy to accomplish and so I’m really proud of the fact that we accomplished one of those.”
Magnolia opened the 2023 campaign with a loss to Klein Collins (35-13) before bouncing back against Tomball (27-7) to wrap up non-district play. Those pair of teams currently own a 10-2 combined record.
The Bulldogs were tested again in a District 10-5A Division I opener versus state-ranked Fulshear on Sept. 9 and fell by double digits, 46-21. The Chargers will be putting their 6-0, 4-0 record on the line against Magnolia West this Thursday while the Bulldogs host Fort Bend Kempner on Friday.
“We’ve got to get some help,” Martin said. “Fulshear’s a really good football team and we played them already and took our licks from them. We’ve got three games left against some good opponents, we need somebody to mess around and trip Fulshear up. If somebody can do that and we can find a way to win these next three games, I’ll settle for a co-district champ.”
Magnolia is three years removed from its last district championship (first since 2016) when it finished 10-2, 8-0 with a trip to the area round of the playoffs. The Bulldogs, coming off a 3-7, 2-6 campaign, surpassed last year’s win total in September when they beat Angleton.
“We struggled last year, and we had a lot of young guys that are back on this football team this year,” Martin said. “Started this journey really in November of last year and so I’m just really proud for them to see all that hard work pay off. Those three goals are really easy to say, they’re very difficult to accomplish. When you’re able to say you accomplished one of them, then that’s a good thing.”
Defensively, the Bulldogs, which were holding opponents to 24.1 points per game through September, held Magnolia West, which entered the contest averaging 36.8 points per game, to 14 points.
Martin said the defense is continuing to give the Bulldogs chances to win football games.
Andrews isn’t surprised.
“All spring ball we’ve worked on getting each other better, so they just came out and did their job and got the job done,” Andrews said.
Martin knows the Bulldogs are capable of more special things if they stay committed to the process.
“I challenge the kids to not be satisfied with where we are and come next week ready to work and get geared up for the next one,” Martin said.
