Newton County football coach Bobby Bass has built his reputation as a defensive coach.
But that defense let Bass and the Cougars down on Friday night in a 50-47 double overtime loss to homestanding Winona.
The Cougars are now 0-2 on the season and will travel to unbeaten Scott Central on Friday night.
Bass was far from pleased with the final results, especially the effort of his defense.
“It was a lot of bad football played on our part,” Bass said. “We haven’t given up 40 points on defense since my first year here. I’m not taking anything away from Winona and their running back but I felt like we gave that one away. We had every opportunity to win that game but it seems like every time we had something good happen, we did something to ourselves to shoot ourselves in the foot.”
The Cougars struck first in the contest. After swapping punts to open the game, the Cougars got a good punt return and started on the Winona 13. Five plays later, Colin Crowder scored on a 5-yard run with 5:19 left in the fist quarter. The PAT was blocked and Newton County led 6-0.
The Tigers took advantage of a Newton County fumble to get their first score. The Tigers went 58 yards in five plays, scoring on a 30-yard touchdown pass with 10:18 left in the second quarter. The PAT was good and Winona led 7-6.
The Cougars answered right back with a nine-play, 63-yard drive. After a big 40-yard gainer from Grey Hale to Tyron Henderson, Crowder scored on a 1-yard run to Capp off the drive. The try for two failed and County led 12-7.
The Cougars got the ball back on a fumble recovery by Cameron Dukes. The Cougars weren’t able to get in the end zone but Cade Mangum hit a 24-yard field goal to give Newton County a 15-7 lead.
The Cougars got another break on the Winona’s next drive when Crowder scooped up a fumble recovery and returned it 42 yards for a touchdown. Mangum’s PAT was good and County led 22-7, a score that held until halftime.
“We probably should have been up 28-7 at the half,” Bass said. “We had all sorts of opportunities to put the game away. We’ve just got to be more consistent. We did some good things and would then do some really bad things.”
In the second half, Winona got back in the game with two straight scores on touchdown passes of 9 and 22 yards to cut the score to 22-20 with 2:30 left in the third period.
The Cougars then took back control of the game with back-to-back scores. The first was a 2-yard run by Crowder with 1:51 left in the third and the second was a 37-yard touchdown pass from Hale to Henderson with 1:30 left in the third after recovering an onside kick. Mangum hit both PATs and County led 36-20.
The Cougars had forced a punt on the next possession but a roughing the kicker call gave Winona back the ball. Ten plays later, the Tigers scored on a 3-yard run and converted the two-point conversion to cut the lead to 36-28.
The Tigers got the ball back with 6:01 left in the game and went 76 yards in five plays as they scored on a 20-yard touchdown run. The try for two was good to tie the score at 36-36.
That score held until the end of regulation where Winona got the ball first and scored on a 5-yard run. The Tigers converted the two-point conversion and Winona led 44-36.
County scored on its first play of overtime on a 10-yard pass from Hale to Tylan McNichols. Henderson then caught the two-point conversion to send the game into a second overtime tied at 44-44.
“We had every chance to win that game,” Bass said. “We got a roughing the punter call at the beginning of the fourth that really hurt us. If it was anything, I thought it was running into the kicker. We got a few bad calls but mainly we shot ourselves in the foot.”
County got the ball first in the second overtime period and settled for a field goal by Mangum to give County a 47-44 lead.
But the Tigers scored in two plays to give Winona the win.
The Cougars had 381 yards of total offense with 128 yards rushing and 253 yards passing. Hale was 15-of-22 passing for 253 yards and two TDs while Henderson had 186 yards and a TD on 11 catches. Crowder had 46 yards receiving on two catches while rushing for 14 yards and three TDs on six carries. McNichols led the rushing attack with 54 yards on 17 carries and had two catches for 21 yards.
