After a big win against Stringer last week, Sebastopol coach Nicky Mooney knew it was going to be hard to get his team geared up for Friday night’s game with rival Leake County.
But the Bobcats took care of business and took a 42-20 win over the homestanding Gators on Friday night.
Sebastopol improves to 8-2 on the season and will travel to Sacred Heart to round out the regular season. A win over Sacred Heart and a loss by Mount Olive to Lumberton will give the Bobcats the No. 2 seed in District 4-1A and a home playoff game in the first round of the playoffs.
Mooney said he was proud of the way his team handled themselves and took care of business.
“It’s hard to go play well in the kind of situation we were in on Friday night,” Mooney said. “We were coming off a big win and our kids knew that Leake County wasn’t very good. And when we got there, we had to dress outside. It was just a bad situation all around. But I thought our kids handled it well. They came out and took care of business and made the best out of a bad situation.”
Sebastopol got the ball to start the game and drove quickly down the field but fumbled on the Leake County 1 on a play Mooney said, “was the coach’s fault because we called the wrong play.”
But two plays later, Leake County snapped the ball over the quarterback’s head and out of the end zone for a safety as the Bobcats led 2-0.
The Bobcats got the ball back and drove 50 yards in seven plays as David Williams scored on a 1-yard run. Jaden Mann ran in the two-point conversion and Sebastopol led 10-0.
The Bobcats then recovers an onsides kick and promptly went 40 yards in four plays as Mann hit Williams on a 20-yard touchdown pass. Nosikah Melendez ran in the two-point conversion and Sebastopol led 18-0.
After a quick three-and-out by Leake County, the Bobcats extended their lead as Mann hit Jaheim Johnson on a 32-yard touchdown pass. The try for two failed and Sebastopol led 24-0.
The Gators got back in the game with a 3-yard run to cut the score to 24-6.
But Sebastopol fired right back as Mann hit Jess Johnson on a 45-yard touchdown pass. The try for two failed and Sebastopol led 30-6.
Leake got a big 56-yard run on the ensuing drive and went 78 yards in six plays as they scored on a 4-yard run to cut the lead to 28-12.
“We kind of let down in the second quarter,” Mooney said. “And we played a lot of kids on both sides of the football. We stayed in our 3-4 on defense all night, even when they went two tights or whatever they were doing. We just played our base defense no matter how they lined up.”
The Bobcats got a late score as they completed the hook and lateral as Mann hit Jacob Williams on a short pass. Williams then pitched to David Williams for a 36-yard touchdown. Jess Johnson ran in the two-point conversion and Sebastopol led 36-12 at the half.
Sebastopol got its last score midway through the third quarter as Kari Micheals scored on a 16-yard run to make the score 42-12.
On the night, Bobcats had 263 yards passing and 179 rushing for 432 yards of total offense. Mann was 9-of-14 passing for 263 yards and four TDs while he rushed for 75 yards on 10 carries. Micheals had 54 yards rushing on nine carries. David Williams had 117 yards receiving on four catches.
“I thought our quarterback played pretty good,” Mooney said. “They didn’t cover very well but he made some good throws and had some good runs. That’s his old school and he played really well against them and that’s a big deal for him. I was proud for him.”
On defense, Jacob Williams and Jaheim Johnson each had 11 tackles while Devin Jones had nine stops. David Williams and Keon Triplett had eight tackles while Melendez and Luke Murphy had seven tackles. Micheals had five tackles while Cy Mooney, Tyler Perkins, Morgan Harper and Trey Wilson each had four tackles apiece.
