Although the Hobbton Wildcats took a 37-21 defeat at the hands of the Wake Christian Bulldogs, the Wildcats’ new offensive scheme with shades of single wing seemed to have success.
“I thought we made some plays first half,” said Hobbton coach Robert Hill. “We moved the ball pretty good. They are a good football team. They throw it around a lot and we had trouble covering it. It was unfortunate what happened at the half, but I thought our kids responded well in the second half. Now we have to get ready for conference play.”
What Hill referred to was that Hobbton’s Bryan Parker collapsed as he was walking off the field at the half. The game was delayed about 40 minutes due to Parker’s condition and getting Wake EMS to the field. Wake Christian’s football coach Stephen Cochran tweeted early Saturday morning that Parker was “awake, alert and staying overnight at the hospital.”
Wake Christian scored on their first possession of the night taking the opening drive 57 yards, hitting pay dirt with a minute and half off the clock.
Hobbton ran a series and had to punt after moving the ball from their own 23-yard line to the Wake 25-yard line. Justin Adkins hit Raekwon Bryant on a good pass in that series.
Wake turned it around and scored on a 75-yard drive with 8:11 left in the first quarter. With both PATs the score was 14-0.
Just over two minutes later, at the 6:21 mark, the Wildcats hit pay dirt capping a 34-yard drive, after Walter Thompson returned the kickoff to the Wake 34-yard line, with a 2-yard run by Bryant. The PAT made it 14-7 with 6:21 left in the first quarter.
The Wildcats turned the ball around on the Wake 20-yard line but were intercepted at the 30. The Wildcat defense was problematic for the Bulldogs on the next series and Wake had to settle for a field goal upping the score to 17-7 with 2:54 left in the first quarter.
Starting the second quarter down 17-7 at the Wake 35-yard line, Adkins hit Bryant on a 58-yard pass play to get the Wildcats in scoring position. The Wildcats converted again on a 2-yard run by Bryant 52 seconds into the second quarter. With the extra point kick, the Wildcats were back in the game down 17-14.
Wake wasted no time adding to their score capping a 67-yard drive to score again with 9:20 left in the second quarter. With the PAT, the score was 24-14. A couple of minutes later, after Hobbton had run a series and punted, Wake upped the score to 30-14 after missing the PAT.
With 1:15 left in the third quarter, Wake tallied again on a 72-yard drive to go up 37-14 with the PAT.
The Wildcats would get one more score when Bryant found the end zone with 4:28 left in the game. With the PAT kick, the final score was 37-21.
Bryant scored all three Wildcat touchdowns. He had 140 yards rushing and 86 yards in pass receptions.
The Wildcats start conference play Friday night hosting the Rosewood Eagles at 7 p.m.
