Bobcats Fall to Murphy

GHS Football, Team FYN Sports

This past Friday, September 16th, the Bulldogs from Murphy, North Carolina headed south to face the Gilmer County Bobcats for Gilmer’s homecoming game. With the Bobcats losing three straight games and a new head coach, the Bobcats were trying to turn things around and come up with a win.

The Bobcats won the toss and deferred to the second half.

After receiving the ball, the Bulldogs began to drive down the field. The Bulldogs looked like they did not miss a beat. Quarterback Joey Curry found wide receiver Colton Posey for a 9-yard touchdown, giving the Bulldogs the first points of the night. The PAT from Joey Helton was good, putting them up 7-0 with 6:30 left in the first quarter.

In their last three games, the Bobcats have started slow on the offensive side of the ball, mostly going three and out in their first possessions.

After receiving the ball, the Bobcats found some fire as their offense drove the field, but the Bulldogs defense stopped them at the 11-yard line, forcing the Bobcats to try for a 26-yard field goal. Casas hanged the ball far to the left, missing the field goal.

The Bulldogs received the ball on the 11-yard line, and the Bobcat defense held them to a three and out.

The Bobcats offense came out strong for their second possession. Quarterback David Smith found Damian Mccue for several connections to put the Bobcats in great scoring position. With the drive taking up the rest of the first quarter, David Smith dropped back to pass, but was flushed out of the pocket to scamper in for a 11-yard touchdown. The PAT by Casas was unsuccessful. The Bobcats trailed the Bulldogs 6-7 with 11:18 remaining in the second quarter.

david

The rest of the second quarter consisted mostly of multiple three and outs, with the score going into halftime remaining 6-7.

The Bobcats received the ball to begin the second half, but the Bulldogs defense held them to another three and out.

The Bulldogs drove down to the 1-yard line on their first possession, but the Bobcats defense held them to a fourth conversion where Joey Curry handed it off to running back Kadrian McRae for a 1-yard touchdown, giving the Bulldogs a 14-6 lead over the Bobcats with 4:58 left in the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs drove the field again with Joey Curry punching it in for the 1-yard quarterback sneak for the touchdown. The touchdown put the Bulldogs over the Bobcats 21-6 with 7:56 left in the fourth quarter.

Running out of time, the Bobcats tried to put a drive together, but it came to a halt when quarterback David Smith floated the ball intended to wide receiver Griffin Cagle.  The ball was picked off in the end zone, giving Murphy the ball back with 4:53 left in the fourth quarter.

The Murphy offense came back out to look like they were going run the clock out, but KJ Allen would find a way to score from 6-yards.  The PAT after was unsuccessful giving the Bulldogs a 27-6 lead over the Bobcats with 8.2 seconds left in the fourth.

The Bobcats lined up to receive the kickoff, but ended up running the clock off to end the game, leaving Coach Wingard with his first loss.

After the game I caught up with Coach Wingard and asked him about the loss. “We played a good first half of ball, but coming out in the second half, we were not focused,” he said. “The guys have to come out and learn how to play with that last play mentality every snap and that is something we’ll work on next week in practice.”

The Bobcats will travel to Heritage next Friday for their first region matchup.

 

 

Leave a comment

Back to Top