THREE FORKS — After receiving the opening kickoff Friday night, Townsend needed just three plays to move to midfield. Then Gavin Vandenacre found himself wide open en route to scoring on a 50-yard reception.

It was the start of a huge night for the junior receiver, who caught three touchdown passes — all in the first quarter — to lead the Bulldogs to a 44-0 District 5B victory against Three Forks. Vandenacre ran wild in the Wolves’ secondary, unofficially hauling in nine passes for a game-high 187 yards.

“We had a bunch of miscommunications (in the secondary),” second-year Three Forks coach Connor Sullivan said. “We go on it all week and up it all week, come out here and shoot the horn on it.”

Vandenacre added touchdown receptions of 16 and 27 yards as the Bulldogs built a 20-0 lead in the first quarter. His only blemish on the night came midway through the second quarter after fumbling following a 15-yard reception and Three Forks recovered at its own 30.

Outside of that turnover, Townsend (5-1, 4-0 District 5B) had little trouble finding the endzone and scored on five of its seven first half possessions. Trey Hoveland threw four touchdowns in the first half, including an 8-yard pass to Dawson Sweat late in the second quarter.

The Bulldogs also returned an interception for a score and Sam Lane capped the first half with a 40-yard field goals that would have been good from 50.

With a comfortable 37-0 lead at halftime, Hoveland did play in the second half and finished having completed 12 of 14 passes for 206 yards and four scores.

While the Wolves struggled to prevent big plays defensively, the offense found some traction in the second half and moved into the redzone twice. Owen Long threw completions of 29 and 24 yards to Reid Woodward and Austin Allen, respectively, on the team’s first possession of the second half.

But the drive was halted in the endzone when Braxen Spencer picked off Long. It was the second of three interceptions thrown by Long, and then Tallyn McCauley threw two more in the fourth quarter in relief of Long.

“Second half we came out and executed a lot better,” said Sullivan. “But we got to be better in the first two quarters, first quarter mainly. We got to come out strong and we haven’t been coming out strong in the first quarter.”

Long completed 9 of 18 passes for 98 yards, while Levi Wagner rushed for 60 yards to lead the Wolves.

“We’re a young team. I know that, everyone else knows that, we’re a young team,” said Sullivan. “There’s a lot more positives than negatives to take from a game like this.”

Three Forks (1-4, 0-4 District 5B) wraps up the regular season with three consecutive games on the road beginning with Jefferson Oct. 8.

Townsend 44, Three Forks 0

Townsend        20  17  0  7  –  44

Three Forks      0    0  0  0  –   0

Tow – Gavin Vandenacre 50 pass from Trey Hoveland (pass failed)

Tow – Vandenacre 16 pass from Hoveland (Sam Lane Kick)

Tow – Vandenacre 27 pass from Hoveland (Sam Lane Kick)

Tow – Jesus Garcia 28 interception return (Lane kick)

Tow – Dawson Sweat 8 pass from Hoveland (Lane kick)

Tow – Lane 40 FG

Tow – Ryan Racht 29 run (Lane kick)