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After watching his team's sluggish offensive performance in last week's 12-0 win over St. Stephen's/St. Agnes, Landon football coach Rob Bordley wanted to see a quicker start Saturday against Bullis.

The Bears (7-1 overall, 3-0 Interstate Athletic Conference) stepped up to his challenge, scoring on each of their first four possessions and taking a dominating 31-8 win over the visiting Bulldogs (2-6, 0-3). It was the defending IAC champions' fourth consecutive victory.

"I think we played O.K.; our offense got us off to a good start," Bordley said. "We really struggled to move the ball last week, so it was good to see the offense have a good day."

With senior leading rusher Delonte Wellington still resting his injured shoulder, junior tailback Wynston Bouknight stepped in and launched the Bears' attack when he took the handoff on a third down-and-6 from the Bulldogs' 34-yard line and ran untouched into the end zone.

Senior quarterback Sam McDonough also turned a third down into points when he hit Andrew Wills on an 18-yard scoring strike 2 minutes, 46 seconds later. Senior Joe Paoletta ran in the conversion for a 14-0 Bears advantage with 5:35 left in the quarter.

"We wanted to come out and work on our techniques and try to stretch the field with our passing game," said McDonough, who finished 3 for 4 passing for 95 yards despite not stepping on the field in the second half. "We executed a lot better this week."

Landon senior defensive end John Blizzard sacked Bullis quarterback Kylor Bellistri on its ensuing possession, forcing a fumble that the Bears recovered 8 yards from the end zone. On the next play, Bouknight scored his second touchdown with 4:34 left in the first quarter. McDonough pushed the Bears' lead to 28-0 about 2 minutes later when he hit Austin Dodson on a 56-yard touchdown pass.

And Brad Grossman added a 27-yard field goal with 28 seconds left in the first half to give Landon an insurmountable 31-0 halftime lead.

"The kids played hard, there's no question about that; the execution just wasn't ideal," said Bullis coach Sean Murphy, whose team lost its sixth straight. "Landon is a good team, and they got us in a hole early. We have to be able to respond to adversity."

There was just too much to overcome after the Bears' stifling first-half performance. In addition to allowing Landon to compile 278 yards of offense, Bullis mustered only 10 net yards from scrimmage in the first 24 minutes.

In seven first-half possessions, Bullis picked up two first downs and was forced to punt five times. As a result, Landon started an average of 44 yards away from the end zone in six possessions.

"Our defense has been great this year," Bordley said. "And they were tough [Saturday]. We can give you a lot of different looks and we blitz with our safeties and cornerbacks a lot. They did a great job of creating turnovers and putting us on a short field."

The overwhelming effort gave much of the first-team offense the second half off, and Bullis used the opportunity to get on the scoreboard in the third quarter. Sophomore Nick Fisher turned in a 9-yard scoring run and the Bulldogs recorded a safety. But they could not do much about Landon's defense, which still allowed just 64 net yards in the victory.

In addition to McDonough's effort, Paoletta finished with 69 rushing yards. Fisher led Bullis with 72 rushing yards on 12 carries.