The Smyer Bobcats had their first game of the season this past Friday night against Crosbyton and had a nail biter till the end for their first victory of the year.
The Bobcats had an electric offense and a shutdown defense that came alive towards the end of the game to make it interesting for the home crowd.
In the first quarter of the game there wasn’t anything going on offensively for either side as both defenses held their own for both teams and didn’t let up going into the second quarter the score of the game stayed 0-0.
The first score of the game didn’t come until the Crosbyton Chiefs ran the ball to the right side to get the edge on the defense and get the two-point conversion to make the score of the game 8-0, in the second quarter with 7:33 left in the half before they got their break.
Right before the half Smyer team together a productive drive but ended up with a no score as the Crosbyton defense bent but never broke in the first half.
Right out of the halftime, the Chiefs scored again, right before the Chiefs scored they had a big pass off of a bootleg play-action pass that gained a lot of yardage making the game 14-0, after missing the two-point conversion with 9:52 left in the third quarter.
The Bobcats put together a slow methodical drive that resulted in a touchdown with 46 seconds left in the third quarter making the score of the game, 14-8. After the kickoff, the Bobcat defense would respond by forcing a fumble and taking it all the way back for a scoop-and-score touchdown with 11:31 remaining in the quarter and making the score, 14-14, after the Bobcats didn’t score their second two-point conversion.
On the pursuing drive, the Chiefs didn’t know what hit them as they went three and out on their first possession giving the ball back to the Smyer offense who did not slow down and had scored another touchdown in the fourth quarter flipping all the momentum to Smyer, giving them their first lead of the game with 7:13 left in the final quarter with a score of 22-14.
The defense again looked unstoppable as they stopped the Crosbyton quarterback from scrambling and getting the fourth down stop. However, a mental error from one of the Smyer players hitting the Crosbyton quarterback late after the whistle resulted in giving the team a fresh set of downs with Crosbyton trailing only eight points in the fourth quarter with 5:47 left on the clock.
The Bobcats they never let it get them down as with Crosbyton in the red-zone knocking on the door to score, the Smyer defense came through on stopping the Chiefs in their tracks with only 1:37 left in the final quarter of play solidifying the win for the Smyer Bobcats with a score of 22-14.
Head Football Coach Scott Funke was very pleased with his team’s performance as they showed heart and grit to pull the win out and give the home crowd something to cheer for at the end of the game.
“They played really hard in the first half and we struggled with their physicality, so we have to get better in that area. I think the good thing is mentally we never gave up which is harder for younger minds, but we were able to score 22 straight points and we really only had two drives in the first half,” said Coach Funke. “We found a couple things in the second half that kind of worked and we used it to our advantage, but other than the few mistakes we had, I’m very proud of our guys digging deep and pulling this win out.”
The team went into the game knowing they were going to try to run the ball behind their four senior offensive lineman and a couple of juniors that they can rotate in. It helped the Bobcats tremendously to have that threat on the line and then being able to pass the ball once they catch the defense flat-footed.
The Smyer Bobcats will be on the road this upcoming week on Friday to play against Ralls as the away team at 7 p.m.