Newcastle Bobcats gearing up for a new football season
The Newcastle Bobcats are gearing up for a new football season as they try to build upon their 7-4 record from last season, led by JD Brice and JT Spurlin. After starting slow out of the gate last season against the likes of Asperont and Gordon, the Bobcats went undefeated the rest of the way through the regular season—winning by an average of 37 points per contest.
Most of the roster is back this season, including JD Brice, who led the Bobcats with 199 carries in 11 games and rushed for over 2,200 yards last season. 2,200 yards adds up to 200 yards per game; an impressive feat for the junior, as well as 35 rushing touchdowns. Brice was considered to be the quarterback of the team, --even though they primarily run the ball, Brice still threw for over 800 yards to add in 19 touchdown passes. When Brice isn’t running the ball, soon to be senior JT Spurlin has the ball in his hands as well. Spurlin had 63 carries of his own, amounting to 530 yards rushing to go along with six touchdowns.
Last but not least is JD Brice’s twin brother Lane Brice, who will be the main wide receiver returning for the senior-led squad. Lane Brice as a junior had 234 yards receiving in only six games of action, pulling in seven touchdowns to add to those receiving yards. Because of the Bobcats playing 6-man, Lane does a lot of different things on the field while his brother is carrying the ball—mainly blocking for JD and JT, which most of the time goes unnoticed because of how easy the Bobcats make it look on offense.
The defense was a little bit of a different story, with the defensive side of the ball led by the four-headed monster of JD Brice, JT Spurlin, Jacob Mcmillan and Lane Brice. With each of these four having 50 total tackles each, these four seniors will try to build upon the team they have built the past few years, especially in 2018. It will be interesting to see how the Bobcats respond against Aspermont, playing the first game of the season at 7:30 p.m. in Aspermont. The second game of the season for the Bobcats will be a rematch against Gordon at Newcastle on Sept. 6. The Bobcats will try to get revenge on the two teams that started their season 0-2 in 2018.