The Sebastopol Bobcats didn’t start out Friday’s game with Noxapater very well.
But they certainly made up for it.
The Bobcat scored on five straight possessions in the first half and ran out to a 37-0 lead and cruised to a 37-16 win over the Tigers.
The Bobcats (5-2, 2-1) will play at Ethel on Friday night in a key 3-1A contest.
First-year coach Keith Brown said the Bobcats played about as well as they could after the first series.
“I was really proud of how we came out and took care of business with it being homecoming,” Brown said. “It was an unbelievable atmosphere. We got the ball to open the game and had to punt but they muffed the punt and gave us the ball back. From there, we played about as good as we could play. We scored on the next five possessions and were able to do some really good things and looked very crisp. We created some huge holes. We had a good night on offense and it’s a credit to the guys up front. I just thought on offense that we played about as good as we could play.”
The Bobcats got the ball to open the game but were forced to punt. That punt hit a Noxapater player, giving the Bobcats the ball right back. Five plays later, David Williams scored on a 4-yard run and converted the two-point attempt to give Sebastopol an early 8-0 lead.
The Tigers fumbled on their next possession and McCoy Compton recovered at midfield. Four plays later, Williams broke free on a 74-yard run and also converted the two-point attempt to give the Bobcats a 16-0 lead.
The Tigers went three and out on its next possession and Sebastopol went back to marching on offense. This time, the Bobcats went 67 yards in eight plays as Williams scored on a 16-yard run. Williams also ran in the two-point conversion and the Bobcats led 24-0 early in the second quarter.
After another three and out by the Noxapater offense, the Bobcats went48 yards in eight plays as Kari Michaels scored on a 3-yard run. The try for two failed and the Bobcats led 30-0.
Noxapater turned the ball over on downs on its next possession after a seven-play drive. The Bobcats needed just three plays to go 56 yards as Michaels scored on a 28-yard run. Jess Johnson hit the PAT and the Bobcats led 37-0 at the half.
“The defense was flying around, and a lot of big licks were thrown,” Brown said. “It was a really good team win. They were playing a new quarterback and relying heavily on the run game. Our front seven did a really good job of not letting them get going. We hit some timely blitzes and got back to having 11 guys rallying to the football and they weren’t able to get anything going. We were able to get some turnovers and were able to capitalize on them. It was a running clock in the second half, and it went pretty quick.”
The Bobcats had 83 yards passing and 227 passing for 310 yards of total offense. Michaels was 7-of-10 passing for 83 yards with one interception.
On the ground, Williams had another big night with 145 yards on 11 carries with three TDs. Michaels had 53 yards on nine carries while Jess Johnson had 25 yards on three carries. Tyler Perkins had three catches for 39 yards while Johnson had one catch for 32 yards.
Trey Wilson led the defense with a solid effort with seven solo tackles and nine assists with three tackles for loss. Mays McDill had two solo tackles and seven assists while Presley Boykin had one solo tackle and three assists. Dez Towner, Jamarius Lay, Joel Smith and Aiden Wilson all had three assists for the Bobcats.
