Marty Elkins

On a night that looked to be heading in the right direction, it quickly made a turn for the worse and became an all too familiar sight this football season. The young Bobcats started strong with a great defensive stand on the Hawks first possession forcing a punt. Two plays later, Christmas came early for the Hawks, as the Cats fumble the ball at their own 11 yard line. This would be the first of four turnovers on the night for the Bobcats as they lose another close game, 23-13, to the Hardin Jefferson Hawks...on Homecoming.

 The Hawks took over after the turnover on the Cats 11 yard line. Three plays later, the Hawks would find the end zone on a six yard touchdown pass that was deflected by a Bobcat defender. As luck would have it, the ball found the arms of a Hawk defender laying on his back in the end zone. PAT was good to give the Hawks an early 7-0 lead.

That theme would continue on the next possession for the Bobcats. After a couple of plays, the Cats once again fumbled the football inside their own 25 yard line, setting up the Hawks with a great opportunity to put more points on the board. But this time the Bobcat defense would make a stand, and force the Hawks into a long field goal. The 43 yard attempt sailed wide left and the Cats dodged another bullet early.

The Cats once again forced the Hawks to punt after another great effort on defense.

The Cats lead by Seniors Josh Juneau and Shawn Bodin, held the high powered Hawk offense to 224 total yards on the night.

After the punt the Cats took over and yet again fumbled on the very first play of the drive, but would recover this time.

That would be the last mistake of the drive.

Seven plays later, Chase Parker, playing for the injured Zach Peavey would go off tackle on a 3rd and 1 play untouched for a 44 yard touchdown run.

Parker would rush for 94 yards on just 16 carries for the night.

QB Jace Statum was huge on the drive completing all four passes he would throw for 31 yards.

Evans would make the PAT to tie the game at seven late in the first quarter.

The Hawks would answer that scoring drive with an eight play drive of their own.

Once again the Cats defense would bend but not break and force the Hawks into another field goal attempt.

This time Flowers would split the uprights with a 35 yarder and put the Hawks back on top with a 10-7 lead.

Hardin Jefferson would then make a defensive stand of their own, forcing the Cats to punt for the first time in the game.

Two huge personal foul penalties would help the Hawks reach the end zone.

A roughing the passer call and a facemask penalty covered 30 of the 56 yards on the drive.

Jocoby Turner capped off the drive with a 12 yard touchdown run to extend the Hawks lead.

The PAT was blocked and the Hawks held a 16-7 halftime lead.

Both teams would exchange punts to start the second half. The Cats took their next possession deep into Hawk territory, but two huge plays would shift the momentum back to the Hawks late in the 3rd quarter. The first play was a missed personal foul for face masking that everyone in the stadium saw but the officials. That would have set the Cats up inside the 15 yard line with a first down.

On the very next play, Orangefield QB Jace Statum is hit while he releases the ball and Jocoby Turner of the Hawks picks off the pass and takes it 90 yards the other way for a touchdown. The PAT is good and the Hawks take a 23 - 7 lead late in the 3rd quarter.

The Cats never say die attitude continued into the 4th quarter.

The defense forced another Hardin Jefferson punt and the Cats went on the only scoring drive for either team in the 2nd half.

Statum threw for almost 40 yards on the drive to set the Cats up inside the 10 yard line.

Statum threw for a season high 147 yards on the night and found five different Bobcat receivers in the game.

Parker would find the end zone for the 2nd time on the night from two yards out to cut the Hawk lead to 23-13.

The Cats tried to go for two but the attempt failed.

An onside kick attempt by the Cats never went 10 yards and the Hawks would take over in Bobcat territory.

The Cats defense forced a fumble, but simply ran out of time.

The Bobcats will now travel to Silsbee to take on the Tigers in a huge game for both teams. Orangefield must win the game to keep their slim playoff hopes alive and hope they get some help from other teams.

Game Notes *Silsbee leads the all time series 3 games to 0. *First game played between these two teams was way back in 1933, a 27-0 Silsbee win. All time meetings!!! 2007 OF 00 Silsbee 42 2006 OF 27 Silsbee 35 1933 OF 00 Silsbee 27

Bobcat Player of the Week Junior Chase Parker - Chase really stepped up this week starting for the injured Zach Peevey. Chase rushed for 96 yards on just 16 carries with two touchdowns against the Hawks. He had a 44 yard td run and a 2 yard td run.