Bobcats Home Opener
The Newcastle Bobcats played there first game of the season on Friday night, losing by a score of 68-64. Taking on a team in Gordon that beat Newcastle on its home turf about a year ago, Friday night’s game was close to a different story, with both teams scoring touchdowns at an absurd rate.
With neither team punting the ball one time the entire game, but the stops that Newcastle got were absolutely crucial. The score was 62-50 with under six minutes to play in the game, the Bobcats had just turned the ball over on downs giving Gordon a short field to work with to seal the game. But the Bobcats did not stop fighting until the very end, the Bobcats stopped Gordon at the goal line, giving the ball back to Newcastle with four minutes remaining at their own 2 yardline. On the first play from scrimmage, JD Brice through a ball about 30 yards down the field to his brother Lane Brice, it looked like a 50-50 ball between the Gordon defender and Lane, when Brice jumped clear over the defender to catch the pass from his brother and run it all the way back for a touchdown. This made the score 62-58 with the Bobcats making the extra point( An extra point kick is actually two points in 6-man Texas football) and just being able to get the ball back for one more shot without Gordon scoring. The Bobcats did an onside kick and RECOVERED it at about Gordon’s 35 yard-line, setting up a short field this time. JD Brice was having trouble on this drive at first, with Gordon setting up a defense where they had three defenders by him at all times where it was hard for him to do anything but pass. But on 4th and 12, Brice made the impossible a reality when he got passed the first defender with ease, and getting to the edge against the other two Gordon defenders to get the first down. Brice gave everything he had on this play to say the very least, so much so that Brice was gasping for air, and had to come out of the game. But with some fresher legs, JT Spurlin took over the quarterback duties for the play as he has played plenty of quarterback in his time in high school, running it in for the easy score giving the Bobcats a 64-62 lead. But with 1:12 remaining and the Bobcats becoming extremely tired, Gordon went down the field and scored with about 30 seconds remaining.
The Bobcats are a better team this year than they were last year, with both of their opening games against Jonesboro and Gordon being way closer this year, having a chance to win in both games. This will not discouraged the Bobcats going forward as they are about to start district play where they will begin to defend their district title. The Bobcats will be back in action next Friday at 7:30.