By Matt Newbery

sports@joplinglobe.com

GALENA, Kan. — Troy Albright made his a memorable senior night, throwing and catching touchdown passes in the first five minutes of the game as his Galena Bulldogs clinched the Class 3A-District 1 crown with a 31-0 shutout over Caney Valley Thursday night at Abbey Field.

The Bulldogs finished the regular season undefeated at 9-0, its first undefeated regular season since 2005. Galena will face the Erie Red Devils in the first round of the state playoffs Tuesday in Galena. Erie defeated the Frontenac Raiders, 19-0, to earn a spot in the bracket.

Albright added a rushing touchdown in the third quarter, as he finished with 69 ground yards on 21 carries to go with two receptions for 69 yards.

On the Bulldogs’ first play from scrimmage, Albright took a pitch from quarterback Jacoby Martin, rolled a couple of steps to his left and found classmate Cody Clark for a 66-yard connection. Colton Leet’s 2-point conversion run made it 8-0 with just 2:04 gone.

“I had three open receivers,” Albright said of his first varsity pass attempt. “I just found the first one and threw it to him.”

The second three-and-out in as many possessions for the Bullpups (7-2, 1-2 in district play) left Galena with the ball at its 42-yard line. A pass interference penalty gave the host squad a first down at the Caney Valley 49, where Martin hit Albright running down the right sideline for the TD.

Albright added the conversion with a run to make it 16-0 with 7:02 left in the period.

“Their cornerbacks were playing up tight on us, plus I had a bit of a height advantage on him,” Albright said.

“He’s a great athlete,” Galena head coach Beau Sarwinski said of his senior running back, “We saw some things we thought we could take advantage.

“We wanted to get after these guys early — we didn’t know what the weather was going to do. We knew it wasn’t raining so we thought we needed to take some chances.

A fortunate bounce helped Martin extend the Bulldogs’ lead to 22. He fumbled the snap on a third-and-goal play at the 1, but was able to corral the ball and get it into the end zone to cap an 11-play, 63-yard march with 2:54 left in the second quarter.

Martin converted a fourth-and-8 at the CVHS 35 with a 14-yard scramble to keep the drive alive. He finished the game with 198 yards of total offense, going 8-of-15 through the air for 190 yards.

Galena wrapped up the half with sophomore kicker Scott Anderson drilling a 21-yard field goal as the second-quarter clock expired to make it 25-0. Martin was 3-for-3 on the drive, as GHS moved 73 yards on just four plays in the final minute.

After eating up nearly five minutes on a fruitless drive earlier in the third quarter, the Bulldogs got the ball back when Codie Perry smothered a punt by Dustin Artherton. Albright tried to get the bouncing ball into the end zone, but was called for illegally batting the ball at the 2-yard line, so Galena took possession on the Bullpups’ 17 with 2:12 on the clock.

Albright eventually did score from 2 yards out, but it was lost in the play’s aftermath when players on both teams were ejected due to unsportsmanlike conduct following the TD. It took about five minutes for the officials to sort things out.

“I really don’t know what happened down there, but we’ll go back and look on the film,” Sarwinski said of the dust-up. “In high school games, emotions get going — we’ll just have to take a look.”

The coach said he wasn’t sure exactly who was ejected from his squad, but that he elected to pull several Bulldog starters from the game at that point.

The Bulldogs limited Caney Valley to just five first downs and 91 total yards for the game. The Bullpups logged only two first downs in the second half — both coming on the final possession of the game — and just 24 total yards.

CVHS quarterback Matt Bartow was sacked four times by the Galena pass rush.

“We knew they were a good wishbone option football team, so we had to make sure we tackled well,” Sawinski said of his defense. “I thought we did a good job with that and we were fortunate enough to slow them down.”