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Newcastle loses a heartbreaker

The Newcastle Bobcats played a tough district game this past Friday, Oct. 11. Losing a heartbreaking game to Perrin by a score of 40-36.

The game went back and forth between the two squads the entire night, with JD Brice scoring the first two touchdowns for the Bobcats on the night. The player of the game for the Bobcats on this evening in Perrin was Lane Brice. Lane had a kickoff return for a touchdown in the 2nd quarter to make the score 22-16. Then with 8 minutes and 48 seconds left in the second quarter, Lane caught an incredible interception pass to get the Bobcats back on offense. Newcastle did a really good job in the first half of getting turnovers. Catching two interceptions and a fumble recovery as well. The problem was that the Bobcats just could not take advantage of these turnovers by turning them into points. The fumble recovery came just three minutes after the Lane Brice interception, but the game ended up being all tied at 22-22 at halftime.

Perrin went into halftime with all the momentum, coming out of halftime scoring right out of the gate to make it 30-22. The Bobcats came back and scored to make it 30-28, but Perrin had become tough to handle at the line as the game went along. Perrin then made the score 36-28 heading into the 4th quarter, with the Bobcats desperately needing to make plays on offense. At times throughout this game you could see that Newcastle was clearly the more talented team, with the defense consistently forcing 3rd and long and 4th and long but the problem ended up being that the Bobcats would give up the big play right when they were in position to get a stop. Perrin ate up much of the clock in the fourth quarter, with the Newcastle defense just not being able to get off the field to set up the offense for more snaps.

The dagger turned out to be a Perrin field goal to make the score 40-28 late in the 4th quarter. The Bobcats came back down the field and scored quickly to cut it to a 40-36 lead but needing an onside kick to keep things going. Perrin recovered it to end this hard fought and heartbreaking affair. If the Bobcats get a stop or two, with the referees making a few more calls, this could have been a very different outcome. Nothing for the Bobcats to hang their head on—this is a very good Newcastle football team whose story is far from over.