The preseason ended up being quite “Golden” for the Ida Baker Bulldogs with their 35-19 home win over Palmetto Ridge Friday night.

The Bulldogs unleashed one of their top playmakers on the Bears early and often in the form of senior wide receiver Rasheed Golden, who accumulated eye-popping stats, which included catching seven passes for 222 yards and two touchdowns.

Golden also made his presence known on special teams and igniting an early fire underneath the Bulldogs by bringing back a Bears’ punt 60 yards for a touchdown, after Baker forced a three-and-out on Palmetto’s opening drive.

“I just wanted to get possession of the ball on the punt and found the hole and went through it,” Golden said.

Palmetto Ridge answered with an 11-play drive, capped by a Jaheem Washington’s 24-yard TD run up the middle on an option by quarterback Cody Young. The Bears racked up four first downs on the 75-yard march downfield, with four runs by Washington and Young combined netting 68 yards.

“I thought (Golden’s) punt return would light a fire underneath the team, but it didn’t as much as I thought it would, because we slowed down a little after that,” said Bulldogs coach Brian Conn.

Leading 7-6 after the Bears missed the extra-point kick, this time it was the Bears defense which wasn’t ready for Golden’s open-field speed.

Facing second-and-six from their own 20, Jordan Diggs found Golden on a bubble screen on the left side. A little hesitation forced two Palmetto defenders to overpursue Golden and with a legion of blockers in front of him, the speedy wideout went untouched down the left sideline.

David Montoya converted one of his five extra-point kicks to give the Bulldogs a 14-6 advantage.

“Jordan told me the ball was wet and he overthrew me, luckily I was able to jump up and catch it,” Golden said. “There were two good blocks downfield ahead of me, too.”

From then on, the game took on a feel of preseason football. Although Diggs looked very accurate in his first varsity start, his teammates were not as much help by dropping seven catchable passes.

Diggs still finished with solid passing stats, going 13-of-25 for 270 yards and three touchdowns, two of them to Golden. He also didn’t have any interceptions.

“Jordan was accurate and he made good decisions,” Conn said. “I thought our receiving corps was going to be one of our strengths this season, but it didn’t look like it tonight.”

Golden flashed his big playmaking ability throughout the game, and took over the third quarter with four catches for 87 yards, including a beauty of a comeback catch in the end zone on a 31-yard Diggs’ throw with zero ticks left.

Baker outscored Palmetto Ridge 21-7 in the second half, with Diggs passing for two touchdowns in the third quarter, the first to Izaiah Febles on a one-yard grab, a drive set up on a pair of Golden catches of 22 and 26 yards.

The capper came on Brennan Williams’ four-yard run with 1:33 remaining in regulation.

Golden finished with an inflated 31.7 yards per catch on his seven grabs.

“His speed is deceptive,” Conn said. “He makes it look easy and it doesn’t look like he is running that hard.”

Palmetto also had the horse it rode often in Washington. The smallish, but hard-rushing back had 32 carries for 225 yards. The Bears went to the Washington well often in the first half, feeding him 22 times for 151 yards. He had two touchdown runs of 24 and 21 yards.

“I felt our linebackers were not prepared well, but (our coaching staff) made good adjustments in the second half and played better,” Conn said.

Young struggled passing the ball, going 5-of-19 for 43 yards.

The Bulldogs’ defense had the bend-but-don’t-break mentality after allowing 20 first downs to the Bears. Two longer drives stalled with Baker fumble recoveries and two others on turnovers on downs.

“I don’t like giving up that many yards, and we can’t give up the big plays,” Conn said. “We’ll be facing more speed next week against Dunbar, so we can’t play with those missed assignments.”

The Bulldogs kick off the season for real in a non-district showdown at Dunbar at 7:30 p.m. next Friday.