Christmas came early Saturday for the Navarro Bulldogs.  Then, like lightning, it was over.

Playing as steady as the light, cold rain falling at Memorial Stadium, the sixth-ranked Bulldogs scored in every quarter against an increasingly flustered and frustrated Coffeyville team and mounted a 31-0 lead with 6:48 left in the game.

That's when lightning prompted TIPS-CHAMPS Heart of Texas Bowl game and event officials to end the game, and award coach Ryan Taylor's Bulldogs a gift-wrapped victory.

One early-gift opened led the SWJCFC champion Bulldogs to tear into more.  The quick inventory: a seventh consecutive win, their first nine-win season since 2013 when they last won a bowl classic, their fourth HOT Bowl Championship in six appearances, their 14th all-time bowl victory, and their fourth bowl-game shutout and first in 51 years, and short-tern license to accept the program's first Top-5 final-poll finish since 2012.

That bounteous haul certainly beats the alternative lump of coal.

From the outset coach Nick Dobler's seventh-ranked Red Ravens were riddled by a myriad of mistakes and breakdowns – from a blocked-punt return by Jordan Ford that resulted in Navarro's first-quarter score, all the way through four turnovers and 14 penalties with 155 yards in assessments.

Add more heaping helpings of pressure caused by a Navarro defense on this miserably cold, rainy day – a unit that totaled five sacks, 10 TFLs and made a third-quarter goal line stand. Stymied all day, the Kansas Jayhawk Conference co-titlists  managed a meager 171 yards offense, averaging just 2.5 yards from 69 plays while converting just 3-of-15 third-down plays. CJC's routine 168-yard rushing game became traction-less with 34 yards from 35 tries.

Six minutes into the game, Navarro struck when Defensive MVP Dallas Patrick Alo-Suifilo blocked Brody Brown's punt and  Ford's 28-yard scoop-and-score shifted momentum to stay in the Bulldogs' favor.

In addition to the block, Alo-Suifilo, a freshman from Katy Jordan, made four tackles with two sacks and a tackle-for-loss.

NC doubled its lead with 5:02 left in the half when Offensive MVP Clay Thevenin capped an 11-play, 96-yard drive of 4:49 with the first of his two rushing scores.  Coffeyville contributed 40 penalty yards in four successive plays (two unsportsmanlikes) to sustain the 'Dogs' scoring march.

Thevenin, who surpassed 800 rushing yards for the season, led all ground gainers Saturday with 49 yards on 17 carries. He tallied a six-yard, fourth-quarter TD.

As the first-half clock expired, freshman Haden Tessier's 43-yard field goal increased Navarro's lead to 17.

NC cashed in the fumble recovery after stonewalling the Red Ravens' third-quarter drive at the one,  Four plays and 21 yards later with :51 left, the Bulldogs countered with a passing TD – their 31st of the season,  Ryan Shackelton, who threw the season's first three, connected with Jeremiah Venson on a six-yarder.
 

THE 22nd TIPS-C.H.A.M.P.S HEART OF TEXAS BOWL

(6) NAVARRO  31, (7) COFFEYVILLE  0     FINAL / Called, 6:48. 4Q

SCORE BY QUARTERS

SCORING SUMMARY

NC – Jordan Ford, 28-return of blocked punt, (Tessier kick)

NC – Clay Thevenin, 4-run. (Tessier kick)

NC – Haden Tessier, 43-FG,

NC – Jeremiah Venson, 6-pass from Shackelton, (Tessier kick)

NC – Clay Thevenin, 6-run, (Tessier kick)