By Caleb Adams

Orange Leader

 

ORANGEFIELD — The Orangefield Bobcats got their non-district season off to a flying start as they shredded the KIPP Generations Collegiate Jaguars 61-0 in Orangefield Friday night.

In what was a Bobcat pounding in week one of the regular season, Orangefield’s defense was phenomenal at allowing minimal yards on each drive, only giving up one first down all game long.

Friday night lights are finally back in Southeast Texas and the Bobcats, with their first home game of the season, didn’t want to start on the wrong foot, as both sides of the ball got to show off their strengths in this game, in a big way.

Kent Micheal was a menace on the defensive side, counting up two big tackles for losses early in the game to get the defense going.

Quy Tsan led the Bobcats’ vaunted rushing arsenal with 75 yards on four runs, making every run count, and setting up the offense for easy scores and big first downs. The Bobcats had close to 400 yards of total offense, 360 of it via the ground game.

After the Bobcats led 48-0 early in the second half, the game went to a running clock.

The Bobcats came out swinging with a mass amount of points in the first quarter alone. The run game from Tsan, Blake Bradley, Kade Grozier and Kadeon Evans was huge and accounted for nearly every yard. This game was put away in the first quarter with a 27-0 advantage for the Bobcats thanks to said run game.

had the first run and went for 17 long yards on the play. After a penalty by the Bobcats, Tsan broke off for a 31-yard rush to the one yard line to set up Bradley for the goal line touchdown, putting the Bobcats up 6-0 after the missed PAT.

After a quick defensive stop, Orangefield took back over. Quarterback Mason Gonzalez started the drive with a long 40-yard pass to Grozier. On the next play, Grozier would run it in himself from 21 yards out for the touchdown. After the PAT went in the Bobcats went up 13-0 in the first quarter.

On the next drive, Tsan rushed for nine yards on two carries to set up a Bradley 12 -yard touchdown run, for the third straight scoring drive for the Bobcats. After the PAT went through, the rout was on as the Bobcats were up 20-0.

That’s not all the scoring that was done in the first quarter. The Bobcats would score 27 in the first, and the last seven was thanks to another long Tsan run, this time from 35 yards out. After the PAT the Bobcats would go up 27-0 late in the first quarter.

The second quarter started with a very strong defensive play to extend the lead even further. A blocked punt turned into a touchdown for the Bobcats after the recovery in the end zoneas the Bobcats special teams upped the margin to 34-0 with 10:53 left in the first half.

The Bobcats would score two more times before the first half ended. Grozier and Heston Puckett combined on the drive to score the first of those two, to make it 41-0. The Bobcat defense would force another turnover with a fumble near the end zone to score. After the PAT the Bobcats went up 48-0 heading into halftime.

With the clock running down in the third, the Bobcats lengthened the lead to 55-0 thanks to a nine-yard run from Kayson Dubois out of the backfield. Orangefield had a firm grip by this point and was just wasting time and letting the backups play it out.

The Bobcats found points in the fourth going up 61-0 off the back of Clayson Choate’s 17-yard touchdown run on third down.

The rushing game and potential of the passing game, for the Bobcats, all show great signs for this season. The Bobcats will be wanting to replicate their ground attack while slowly adding more passing to their game over the season.

With that convincing win the Bobcats move to 1-0 on the season and make their first step towards the post-season run they are aiming for.

The Bobcats will hit the road for the first time next week when thy travel to Livingston to face the Lions. Orangefield should be facing some angry Lions, who fell to Shepherd 68-7. After the trip to Livingston, the Bobcats will venture to Shepherd the following week.

Orangefield, after a bye, will then go to Buna for their district opener Sept. 28 as they prepare for a three-game set on the road.