HOUSTON - When he rested his legs on the recliner in his living room on Friday evening around 7 o'clock, Larry Neumann was free to dream.

  Nederland's 12th-year head football coach could sit back and enjoy a night with his lovely wife Beth. Neumann could relax with a drink, and watch some television and dream.... dream, dream, dream.

  Bulldogs football fans had the opportunity to witness Neumann's dream during the totally perfect NHS first half Saturday, as Big Ned entered Rice Stadium's home locker room at halftime with a 42-0 lead.

  A few imperfections sneaked into the fuzzy second-half scenario but Nederland still departed this 4A Division II bidistrict matchup with a thoroughly dominant 49-14 victory over Dayton.

  About 8,000 very cool spectators had the opportunity to witness Nederland first-half perfection. It truly amounted to the stuff of which dreams are made.

  Nederland (8-3) advanced into next Saturday night's 4A Division II area round game against Jacksonville (9-2), a 24-6 winner over Waller. No strangers to strangers to state playoff competition, Jacksonville and Nederland will play at Sam Houston State's Elliot T. Bowers Stadium in Huntsville.

  The start time will be 8 p.m., or later, depending on the finish of the scheduled afternoon clash between Texas State and Sam Houston State.

  Jacksonville will be the host team. Neumann indicated that ticket sales would begin on Tuesday morning at the NHS main office from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 8 to noon on Friday. Pre-sale adult tickets will be $6, and student tickets $4 with all seats at the gate sold for $7.

  There will be an opportunity for real Golden Triangle football lovers to watch Dustin Long lead Sam Houston in the afternoon and Dustin Hood to lead Nederland in the night. The younger Dustin completed 7 of 11 passes for 228 yards and two touchdowns, guiding the Dogs to an unexpected 21-0 first-quarter lead.

  Could Dustin see this slaughter in the works during this week's practices?

  "To an extent, but not that much," Hood admitted. "The main thing we've been doing is conditioning. We didn't know it was going to be this cold."

  One thing's for certain. Hood's never been a part of anything much more flawless than Nederland's first half which contained a perfect six for six - six touchdowns in six possessions.

  "I don't think you're going to get any better than that," said Hood, who can be absolutely red-hot when he's on target.

  "I thought the unique thing was the big-play opportunities and performances we had in the first half," Neumann said. "We would have taken a one-point win but something like this gives you confidence about your preparation for the next game."

  Nederland had not looked this sensational since the season opener against Texas City. The Dogs zapped out 25 first downs in near-frigid conditions to Dayton's 10. The offensive balance clicked for 271 rushing and 254 passing yards. Other than a backup quarterback's interception, Nederland delivered a turnover-free display, too.

  In spite of the 525-yard total offense heroics, a Doggone good linebacker named Jordan Rash might have been Nederland's finest player on this Astroturf field. Rash pestered Dayton's primary weapon much of the day, preventing him from completing a pass and keeping his running efforts under control.

Take another bow, linebackers coach Bill Jardell, Rash deserves the plaudits, too.

  "We haven't had many (halves) like that," Dogs defensive coordinator Delbert Spell reflected afterwards. "Boths sides of the ball wanted to come and play well. Jordan (Rash) has really played extremely well for about the last three weeks now."

  The Bulldogs knew it was their day when Hood lost the ball momentarily on the carpet, picked it back up and threw it 62 yards to a wide-open Ryan Butler for the game's second touchdown. That play made it 14-0 and gave all the black shirts plenty of reason to add optimism as well as relax.

There were a lot of good receivers in this game, but Butler's numbers were the best - three receptions for 114 yards - thanks to the 62-yarder.

  "We knew before that play that when they manned up, he (Butler) was going to be wide open," Hood said.

  "The coaches told us the backside post was going to be open," Butler said. "The guy that was coming up just stopped (when Hood fumbled), and it left me and Tyler (Thompson) both wide open and he (Hood) just picked me."

  Neumann said he believed such a play had happened more against the Bulldogs over the years than for them. But on this day, the ball bounced right out of Hood's hand and ascended right back to him.

  "It's just part of football but it's something that happened," Neumann said.

  With linemen such Brock Lemire and Trevor Huber executing well-timed blocks, Dogs tailback Micah Mosley barely outrushed Dayton's strong sophomore Michael Dugat. Mosley carried 20 times for 139 yards and added two receptions for 40 yards. Dayton's all-purpose dasher rushed 16 times for 131 yards.

  Mosley placed the Dogs on the board in the game's first three minutes, taking a flare from Hood and rambling 30 yards with the help of Lemire's block. The touchdown came with 9:11 left in the first quarter. Zac Wallace followed with his first of seven for seven extra-point kicks.

  Hood's dribble and lob to Butler doubled the count to 14-0 before Mosley followed Thompson's block on a 10-yard scoring run with 1:23 left in the opening quarter. A pretty play-action bomb to Michael Young covered 45 yards and ushered the winners into scoring position.

Then a 35-yard flip to Butler placed the Dogs in position for their first of three second-quarter scores. Jameson DeLord (5 for 39) roared straight ahead for the last 11. Clint Whitaker took his turn on a seven-yard run with 4:18 left in the half.

  Mosley had one more score in his pocket before half, taking a pitch to the left side for 10-yard run with 15 seconds left in the half. Thompson leaped high to catch a 29-yard pass from Hood in the half's final minute at Dayton's 15.

  Hood could adjourn by then. He never played a down in the second half. That's the kind of dream a head coach doesn't mind watching over and over again.

  "I think the week-off freshened us," Neumann said. "I think we were so ready that we could have played by about Wednesday. That began to bother me because we had covered the ground we needed to cover and we were so eager to play."

  Larry didn't have any worries here, though. He could return to his lounge chair and resume his perfect dream by late Saturday night. He had watched as it unfolded Saturday afternoon.