The Sebastopol Bobcats knew they were playing for more than pride against Hamilton in the regular-season finale.
They were playing to stay away from defending 1A champion Bay Springs and Friday night showed why.
The Bulldogs scored early and often, rolling to a 48-0 halftime lead and cruising to a 64-0 win in the first round of the Class 1A playoffs.
The Bobcats finish the season with a 7-5 record while Bay Springs improves to 11-1 on the season.
Coach Keith Brown said the Bobcats were just overmatched against the defending class 1A state champions.
“We just ran into a juggernaut,” Brown said. “They are really good and will probably win Class 1A again this year. We were prepared to give it our best shot and moved the ball on them in the first drive. But they stopped us, and it went downhill from there. They jumped on us and took it to us pretty good but I will say that I don’t think that our kids ever quit and we played to the end. Honestly, I feel like it will come down to Bay Springs and Biggersville in the state championship game. They are really good.”
The Bulldogs scored 24 points in the first quarter on a 56-yard run, a 49-yard pass and a 1-yard run and led 24-0 after one. The Bulldogs added three more scores in the second quarter and led 48-0 at the half. The Bulldogs added two more scores in the third quarter for the final margin.
“When we have time to reflect back on the season, we will see that we did some good things,” Brown said. “We did some big things and won some big games. It’s just a tough way to go out. They had kids that looked like they should be playing in junior college. They scored on explosive plays all night and we just couldn’t run with them.”
Sebastopol had just 80 yards of total offense. Kari Michaels had 39 yards rushing on 11 carries while David Williams had 12 yards on five carries. Andarius McDougle had 11 yards on 11 carries while McCoy Compton had 14 yards on one carry. Michaels was 0-of-9 passing on the game.
Compton led the defense with 2.5 tackles while Mays McDill, Trey Wilson and Williams each had two tackles apiece.
Bay Springs had 327 yards rushing, 131 passing for 458 yards of total offense
Scored 24 in the first, 24 in the second of ra 48-0 halftime lead, 16 points in the third quarter.
Brown said the eight departing seniors will be missed.
“Those seniors will go down as winning more games than other class in school history,” Brown said. “These last three years have been a large part of our success and a large part of making Sebastopol relevant in football again. We started off the year really hot but kind of fizzled toward the end. I thought our team morale and team unity was really good and I was proud of that. I’m disappointed in the way we ended but we have to move on.”
Brown said while the season didn’t end the way they wanted, he’s excited about the future.
“Now it’s time to hit the weight room and develop some kids,” Brown said. “We have some talented players coming up and are excited about that group. It will be a whole new deal for us playing in Class 2A than it was last year. We will give them this week and the week of Thanksgiving off and we as coaches will evaluate some things and see where we can make improvements. When we come back from Thanksgiving, it will be time to start over and get back to work in the weight room.”
