When Mexico needed a play in Friday’s home opener, it almost always made the play.

The Bulldogs scored the first 21 points before eventually beating Southern Boone 28-7 for their first win of the season and first victory against the Eagles (0-2) in four tries. They held Southern Boone to 68 yards passing and maintained a shutout until the fourth quarter.

Head coach Steve Haag said Southern Boone has proven to be a passing team in the past and he expected that to be the case on Friday. Quarterback Mason Shearer had more yards with his legs than his arm at 90 yards and threw two interceptions.

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“We worried a little bit about the pass,” Haag said. “(Shearer) can throw it and can run it. They’ve got backs that can run it as well so they used the spread to spread us out and allow him to run. That can kind of lull you to sleep (to set up a pass), and that’s what I was worried about. They moved the ball a little bit, but we stepped up at times.”

Korbyn Dorsey dove to intercept a ball near the sideline around midfield in the first quarter, Drew DeMint caught a ball in the end zone that was tipped by a jumping Kaden Benne and a dive by Benne almost was another interception but was ruled incomplete. Mexico (1-1) made that latter interception on a fourth-down play 11 yards out from the end zone, which was another key example of Mexico doing well “jumping on routes” thanks to the preparation of coaches Travis Simmons and Kevin Krietemeyer.

That wasn’t the only key defensive play around the end zone. The Eagles were knocking on the door on fourth down while down 21-0 in the third quarter, but Shearer was stopped inches from the goal line on a hit by Leighton Hilderman.

“Credit the defensive line, and Leighton is just a warrior,” Haag said. “He’s out there every play getting after it, doesn’t complain and has been a great offensive and defensive lineman for us.”

DeMint said Mexico’s defensive backs covered what they needed to for positive results most of the night. Southern Boone connected on a 48-yard passing play but threw an incompletion on a fourth down to fail to score before halftime.

“Our back half – me, Kaden, Korbyn (Dorsey), Charlie (Fisher) and James (Matthews) – is really good,” DeMint said. “We can see everything. At the goal line, we stepped up and stopped them from scoring for like four or five downs which is really nice.”

DeMint ran for 120 yards and two touchdowns, Dorsey had 72 yards and one touchdown, Connor Fisher ran for a touchdown, and Matthews rushed for 63 yards. Mexico ran for 370 yards.

DeMint dove over the goal line for an 8-yard touchdown to put Mexico ahead 14-0 in the second quarter and ran 24 yards while breaking tackles for a 21-0 Mexico lead in the third quarter. On the latter touchdown, DeMint had to momentarily stop to shed a defender before taking the ball the rest of the way.

“I got the ball and I saw a lineman in my face,” DeMint said. “I was thinking, ‘I got to make something out of it.’ We were trying to make first downs and run the clock out so I was trying to get something out of nothing.”

Mexico lost three fumbles against Southern Boone but only allowed the Eagles to capitalize and score on the third fumble.

“We have two fullbacks that haven’t really ran the ball in that position,” Haag said. “They’re learning and lesson learned. Hopefully, we can improve that as the season continues.”

While Mexico’s first game ended in a 26-14 loss at Centralia, Haag said after the game that the Bulldogs built off their good second half against Centralia. Mexico shut out Centralia in the second half and the team hopes to build off its Southern Boone success against Class 4 District 5 foe and state No. 4 Odessa (2-0) at 7 p.m. Friday at home.

“The physicality of the Centralia game really helped because I don’t think Southern Boone was as physical as Centralia,” Haag said. “We were ready for it and brought our physicality on offense and defense.”