Bobcats Start 2022 With Impressive Performance vs LFO

By: Ryan Cobbett

The Bobcats traveled to Fort Oglethorpe for their first game of the season and left town with a huge 32-13 win over the Warriors this last Friday night. The Bobcats were quick to answer every Warrior score mounting up stretches of 19 unanswered for a time in the first half and ended the game with 13 unanswered points in the second half. Both teams featured two very different offenses as the Warriors’ pass game accounted for 87% of their offense, while the Bobcats’ run game accounted for 93% of their offense.

Team Notes

It was the Will Kiker show for Gilmer as he started off the Bobcats scoring with a big 75 yard run in the first quarter and then notched his 2nd touchdown on a 22-yard pass from Issac Rellinger for the only completion of the night, and then Kiker later added another rushing touchdown to put the game away in the 4th quarter. He ended with 173 all-purpose yards with 3 touchdowns. Rellinger also added a second touchdown to his total with a 9-yard run in the first half. Brock Titus and Hunter Watkins also contributed to the dominating run game with 78 and 68 yards respectively. The Bobcat defense was solid in this one holding the Warriors to only 164 total yards and shut them out in the second half. Watkins and Kiker were busy on both sides of the ball as Watkins added 5 tackles and 2 TFLs and Kiker grabbed an interception.

Not much went the Warrior’s way on Friday night as they totaled just 164 yards, and their defense had no answer for the Gilmer run game. Senior QB Dylan Blankenship struggled in this one posting a 65.6 QB Rate and throwing for just 127 yards. He also averaged just 1.0 YPC in this match vs the dominant Bobcat defense. Blankenship connected with WR Trevon Gott for a 38-yard touchdown in the first half for the Warriors longest and most exciting play of the game. Donnie Brown had his first touchdown of the season with a 2-yard run to open the scoring in this game. On defense the only positive was Junior LB Payton Simpson as he totaled 20 tackles.

Look Ahead

The Gilmer Bobcats will take on the motivated Fannin County Rebels (0-1) for their home opener as the Rebels were upset by Union County in their Week 1 matchup. As for Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe they will travel to Chatsworth to take on Murray County (0-1).