The Rossville Middle School Bulldogs had several players miss Thursday’s football game due to illness and injuries, but they still had more than enough firepower to score an easy 48-6 win at Dade County.

Rossville (3-0) took control from the opening kickoff. Grayson Moore recovered a Wolverine fumble on the kickoff and Jalyn Shelton ripped off a 34-yard touchdown on the first snap of the game. Moore’s conversion run gave Rossville a quick 8-0 lead.

After the Bulldogs defense held inside its own 10-yard line, Shelton broke free for an 85-yard scoring scamper with Chris Henderson adding the 2-point run. Henderson and Hunter McKenzie would later add touchdown runs of 10 and 3 yards with Moore and Justin Baxter handling the conversion runs.

Shelton found the end zone for the third time in the first half on a 28-yard run, and Henderson capped the Bulldogs’ scoring with an 87-yard burst to start the second half.

“Dade County is always tough and we had a rough week with several kids out,” Rossville head coach Steve Lewis said. “We had to run a few different defensive looks and had a couple of kids (Nic Trew and Cody Holland) step into the defensive starting lineup and really contribute.

Shelton had 195 yards on just four carries, while Henderson had 110 on his four rushes. Baxter had two carries for 51 yards, Moore picked up 47 yards on three carries and McKenzie added 21 yards on three carries behind the dominant offensive line play of Sonny Green, Jermiah Conyers, Christian Gentry, Lance Kearny, Luke Edwards, Chaz Green, and Brad Eaton.

Moore led the defense with six tackles, while Gentry had a sack along with a pair of tackles for loss.

“We had to limit a couple of players on their playing time to try to get them healthy, and it’s great that the team stepped up and filled those roles. As good as we have played, there is still a tremendous amount of room for improvement.”

Rossville will finally play a home game on Thursday when they host Lakeview (1-2) for Homecoming. Kickoff is slated for 4:30 p.m.