The Forest Bearcats are in the midst of a tough start to 2019. Following last Friday’s 30-21 loss to Florence High School (1-4), the Bearcats find themselves 0-4.
This is the first time FHS has started a season 0-4 in 18 years when the 2001 Bearcats started the season 0-5. Head coach Ty Weems knew his team faced some challenges coming in to the season, but he didn’t expect to be sitting at 0-4 after four weeks of play.
During the first three games of the year, the Bearcats have struggled mightily to find consistency on offense which has cost the them dearly in close games.
Last Friday, the Cats’ offense was prowling early on when they scored 21 points in the first quarter. In the previous three games, FHS had failed to score 20 points in a game. The only problem was, after scoring three touchdowns in the opening quarter the Bearcats were unable to put the ball in the endzone during the remaining three quarters allowing Florence to come from behind for the win.
Early on, the Cats had everything working with Dylan Grayson at the quarterback helm. He started the game strong with one touchdown on the ground and threw a scoring pass to Jhatavious Slack. Later in the quarter Devonyal Lofton added a scoring run and FHS was looking good with a 21-7 lead over the Eagles after the first quarter.
The last three quarters were a different story, Forest was outscored 30-0 over the final 36 minutes by the previously winless Eagles.
In his first full-time action at quarterback, Grayson led the Bearcats completing 14 of 29 pass attempts for 147 yards and 1 touchdown pass. He also rushed for 50 yards on 10 carries and 1 touchdown on the ground. Grayson also had a busy night on defense as one of the anchors of the Cats defense.
Senior running back Lofton ran the ball hard out of the Bearcats’ backfield, and had some great runs on the night. He ended the night averaging 12.7 yards per carry totaling 114 yards on 9 carries with 1 touchdown, but it was not enough to overcome the Bearcats miscues on both sides of the ball.
With the loss FHS remains winless in 2019, and will host the Leake Central Gators (2-3) at L.O. Atkins Field this Friday night. The Bearcats and head coach Ty Weems will look to get their first win of the season, and look to have a good shot against LCHS who is also in the midst of a slow start this season. The game is set to kickoff at 7:00 p.m. in Forest.
