Gallery by Brad Davis
Hinton – Josh Evans’ Bobcats have taken their lumps in his first season. Starting a group that’s primarily composed of underclassmen, there have been some tough learning experiences.
Monday was one of those nights.
Midland Trail scored 21 straight in the first 13 minutes to beat the Bobcats 35-14 Monday in Garten Stadium.
After turning the ball over six times, five through the air, against James Monroe on Friday, the Patriots were more disciplined as the offense avoided penalties and third-and-long situations, both of which went hand in hand in their downfall against the Mavericks.
“Well we weren’t playing behind the chains like we were Friday night,” Trail head coach Frank Isaacs said. “We made a couple of adjustments after we watched film so we could get some positive plays and once you get started, well… but Summers is a young team. They’re going to get better. This is probably what we should’ve looked like last week, but we didn’t and that’s the way it is. But we’re happy with the win. We hadn’t won since Sept. 10 so it’s been awhile.”
The Patriots looked like a team hungry for a win from the start.
After a kickoff return that had them open on their own 33, they mounted a seven-play drive that featured a fourth-down conversion and ended with a two-yard score from Griffin Boggs.
Their next drive, while covering more ground, was just as effective.
A 46-yard strike from Trail quarterback Josh Dickerson to receiver Matt Light, who was playing his first game of the season, set the visitors up at the Summers two-yard line, but they didn’t stay for long. A touchdown run from Aden Isaacs made it 14-0 with five minutes left in the opening quarter.
The third Trail scoring drive was capped at the open of the second quarter as Robert Ruffner powered in from a yard out, making it a 21-0 contest in the blink of an eye.
“It’s been a slow start for us all year unfortunately,” Evans said. “But our young kids grew up tonight. It was good to see that. Are we going to win any more? I can’t tell you that but the young kids took over and that’s what we wanted to see. They had a lot of excitement and we were pleased with every one of them.”
A lot of that excitement stems from how the Bobcats handled the rest of the game.
The hosts responded with a seven-play, 74-yard drive that ended in a four-yard score from Duke Dodson but was ignited by a 56-yard run from sophomore Drake Cole.
The optimism was short-lived for the hosts as Trail fired back with a seven-play 55-yard scoring drive, capped by a pass from Dickerson to Isaacs.
After a disastrous showing throwing the ball on Friday, Isaacs was pleased with how Dickerson played, completing six of his eight passing attempts for two touchdowns and just one interception.
“We weren’t behind the chains a lot,” Isaacs said. “Last week it seemed like every time we had the ball it was first-and-20 or second-and-20, so there was one opportunity we talked about it but we ran the ball twice and scored a touchdown, so we’re just being a little more patient. We needed to take a little more pressure off Josh. He hadn’t played since his sixth grade year. I probably put too much on him, but we made some adjustments and that seemed to work better for us tonight.”
The two teams traded scores in the second half to account for the final tally, but despite the blowout Evans came away impressed with what his young team accomplished in the absence of starting running back Andre Merriam-Harshaw, who has left them team.
“I thought they executed well and gave great effort,” Evans said. “We’ve only got about 10 plays we can run with them because they don’t know them all yet, but their effort is just out of this world. When you’ve got 14- and 15-year-olds out there competing with 17- and 18-year-olds, it means a lot and the future is definitely bright out here for them.”
Sophomore Drake Cole led Summers with 10 rushes for 124 yards. For Trail Dickerson was 6-of-8 passing for 145 yards and two touchdowns while receiver Matt Light had two catches for 86 yards and a score.
Summers drops to 1-6 and will travel to Pocahontas County on Friday while Midland Trail snaps a three-game losing streak to improve to 3-4 and will travel to Richwood on Friday.
MT: 14 14 7 0 – 35
SC: 0 7 0 7 – 28
Scoring Plays
Q1
MT: Boggs 2 rush (Shockey PAT), 9:18
MT: Isaacs 2 rush (Shockey PAT) , 5:07
Q2
MT: Ruffner 1 rush (Shockey PAT), 11:55
SC: Dodson 4 rush (Testerman PAT), 7:59
MT: Isaacs 6-yard pass from Dickerson (Shockey), 4:50
Q3
Light 40-yard pass from Dickerson (Shockey), 3:40
Q4
Coen McClaugherty 1 rush (Testerman PAT), 3:32
