The Ropes Eagles hosted the New Home Leopards Friday where the Eagles would win in a nail-bitter, 23-21.
There was a lot of action in the first quarter as the first team on the board was the Leopards after they punched it in with a one yard run making the score 6-0 after they missed their PAT attempt.
Ropes responded with their own one-yard run with Kade Franklin taking it in taking the lead 7-6 after Reese Williams made the PAT for Ropes.
The defense for the Eagles came to play as well as still in the first quarter, they were able to get a scoop and score with another made PAT to extend their lead 146.
New Home got back on track with their offense as they hit a nine-yard pass for the touchdown and a good two-point conversion to tie the game up at 14, at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter of the game, New Home opened up the scoring as they hit a 52-yard pass over the top of the defense to make the score 21-14 after a good PAT.
Ropes responded in a way they know how with a touchdown mass from Kade Franklin to Williams from 26 yards out, but missing the PAT to make the score 21-20 at the halftime break.
There wasn’t any more scoring for the rest of the game except for Williams as he hit the game winning field goal over the New Home defense from 26 yards out to give the Eagles the 23-21 win.
The Eagles did well on offense as they had 306 yards of offense with 156 going through the air and the rest of the 150 going on the ground.
Kade Franklin passed for 156 yards with one touchdown and one interception going 13-for-20 on the night.
Mason Marmolejo led the team in rushing on the night as he had 77 yards on the ground. Ryland Kieth had another 64 yards on the fround with Kaden Riker having seven yards and Kolter Dockery with five yards.
The leading receiver for Ropes was Reese Williams as he had six catches for 74 yards and a touchdown in the game. Riker had three catches for 39 yards, Trak Crow had one catch for 20 yards, Kade Franklin had one catch for 10 yards, Colton Mortensen had one catch for 10 yards and Reid McCaleb had one catch for three yards.
The offensive firepower was able to outdo New Home in first downs as they had 18 on the night to the Leopards 10, as well as the turnover battle as Ropes gave the ball up only once in their contest to New Home’s two.
On defense the Ropes Eagles gave up only 253 yards of offense to the Leopards.
The leading tacklers on the Ropes defense were both Kanon Buckner and Riker with 13 total tackles a piece.
Victor Saenz had another 11, Mike Sanchez had 10, McCaleb had nine, three Eagles in Williams, Brady Bryan and Crow all had six tackles a piece, another three Eagles had five more tackles each in Jackson Lehnen, Kieth and Maddux Sierra, two Eagles had four tackles a piece in Jacob Wyatt and Jace Fowler, two more players had three tackles each in Branson Simental and Zayden Pittman, two more players had two tackles in Dockery and Tyler Harbuck and finally Mike Williams and Gabe Sanchez had one tackle each.
Williams, Riker, Wyatt, Elijah Flores, Buckner and Lehnen all had one sack on the game.
The only Eagle that finished with an interception on the game was Simental along with a pass break up.
The defense forced two turnovers along with four three and outs on the night.
The Ropes Eagles move on to 2-0 to start the season as they get ready to take on the Sudan Hornets on the road at 7 p.m. The Hornets are coming off of a 67-60 win over the Tahoka Bulldogs on the road.