Friday, August 26, the TR community gathered together to watch the first, home football game. It was also the most anticipated game of the season- the Dog Fight between the Travelers Rest Devildogs and the Berea Bulldogs.

Before half-time, the Devildogs fell behind to the Bulldogs, 22-0. As the boys tried to come back, wide-receiver Mason Moody helped out the team by putting up a thirty yard kick-return to ignite a last minute offensive drive. By doing that, it put the Devildogs back into the intense nail-biting game.

As the timer came down to it’s last few seconds, Wilson scored two touchdowns and Edwin Ochoa scored a field goal, bringing the score 30-13.

Despite the beating that TR took, the crowd was wild for the game simply because of the old history between the two teams.  Senior Brock Ballard from Berea said that for him, “going into my last final game against TR is very exciting, but also at the same time depressing. I’ll never get to face my rival ever again. I’m going to give it my all and leave it on the field to defend the dog bowl with everything I got.”

And Bradley Myers, a former Berea student said, “There is the South Carolina Clemson rivalry, Auburn and Alabama rivalry, then Ohio State and Michigan rivalry. Travelers Rest and Berea’s rivalry is at the same level of intensity as college teams.”

Berea claims the title from this game. But hopefully TR will bounce back and reclaim the dog bowl in the years to come.