The Sebastopol made the two-and-a-half-hour trip south to Richton last Friday and fought their way to a tough district win over the Rebels.
In a game that was closer on the scoreboard than it should have been, the Bobcats started slow, but came to life in the second half to get the 23-12 win.
Bobcats’ head coach Nicky Mooney said his team played its worst half of football this season, but overcame the slow start to pull out the tough road win.
“I don’t know if it was emotions that carried over from the prior week’s tough loss, or the long bus ride, but we did not play well to start the game,” Mooney said. “We just didn’t play with any emotion in the first half and it showed. We woke up and came to life in the second half, and if not for some awful hometown officiating the game would not have been as close. But we came home with a district win and that’s what matters.”
In the early first quarter the Bobcats lost their leading running back when Colby Strickland came out of the game with a sore knee. Sebastopol has ran the ball out of the backfield by committee through this point of the season, but the loss of Strickland was definitely an early concern for the coaching staff.
Sebastopol scored first and was leading 7-0 at the end of the first quarter. The Bobcats added another score in the second quarter to extend the lead to 13-0 before the home team scored with under a minute left on the clock before halftime. The teams entered the half with the visiting Bobcats leading 13-6.
Bobcats’ quarterback, Jaden Mann stretched the lead to two scores with a third quarter touchdown run giving Sebastopol a 20-6 lead. Mann finished the night with 84 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 18 carries.
In the fourth quarter the Bobcats kicked a 19-yard field goal to make it a three score lead at 23-6, before giving up a late touchdown to the home team. The finally tally of scoring saw the Bobcats defeat the Richton Rebels 23-12.
After the loss of Strickland in the first quarter, Mann and junior Nosikah Melendez carried the load on offense. Melendez was a workhorse carrying the ball 24 times for 157 yards with one scamper of 30 yards on the night.
Mann continued his assault in the ground game in leading the Bobcats to another win. With his work on the ground Friday night, Mann now has 599 rushing yards on the season which is the second most rushing yards in all of Class 1A.
On defense, coach Mooney said that Reginald Shepherd was as consistent as he has been all season long with 10 total tackles (3 for a loss) on the night, and that Jahiem Johnson really stepped up with a big interception and has been coming on strong on the defensive side of the ball. Altogether the Bobcats-D forced three turnovers in the win.
With the win Sebastopol moves to 3-1 on the season and 1-0 in Region 4.
The Bobcats will have the night off this Friday night, and extra time to prepare before their toughest game of the year upcoming against Lumberton High School (2-2) after of the off week.
“This bye week fell at a great time for our team,” Mooney said. “We have some things to work on, and this will give us some extra rest and preparation to get ready to play Lumberton which will be our toughest game of the year to this point.”
The Bobcats will travel to Lumberton on September 27 to play the Panthers on their home field.
