SUMRALL – The Wesson Cobras traveled Highway 49 to visit Sumrall Bobcat country Friday night for some non-divisional 3A competition. The Bobcats used big plays to successfully defend their home turf with a 41-26 victory over the Cobras.

“We fought really hard, and we kind of sparred with them (Bobcats) a little bit”, said Cobra senior Place Kicker CJ Viramontez. “But like Coach Greer said, we just didn’t go ahead and knock them out.”

The first quarter started out with the Cobras in control of the ball but they ended up punting on their first possession. Sumrall also started the game slowly, picking up penalties and eventually turning over the ball on an incomplete pass on fourth down.

On Wesson’s second possession, Sumrall freshman Travis Jackson sacked Cobra quarterback Tyler Christmas as he scrambled to find an open receiver.

Sumrall ended the first quarter with senior Conner Landrum scoring the first touchdown of the night by rushing seven yards to the end zone. Sophomore Yates Rodney scored the extra point, bringing the score to 7-0 Bobcats.

The Bobcats continued showing their muscle in the second quarter with junior Tyler Bunch scoring the second touchdown of the night with another successful extra point by Rodney.

The Cobras came back strong with quarterback Tyler Christmas sprinting 64 yards to score.

Junior Farrod Green recovered a bad snap from Sumrall’s offense in the end zone, which resulted in the Cobras’ second touchdown of the night. Viramontez made two successful extra point attempts, which brought the score to an even 14-14 at halftime.

The Cobras came back after half time fired up. Junior Dartavious Dixon scored the first touchdown of the third quarter with a 23-yard reception, which put the Cobras in the lead 20-14, but Sumrall blocked the extra point.

On the Cobras’ next possession, Sumrall junior Tyler Bunch killed Wesson’s drive with a interception on the five-yard line and returned it 27 yards.

Sumrall took this momentum and scored two more touchdowns by seniors Jordan Thomas and Conner Landrum with successful extra points by Rodney.

The Bobcats ended the third quarter with a score of 28-20 as the Cobras’ gained momentum by passing the ball to junior Farrod Green for a total of two complete passes for 20 yards.

In the fourth quarter, Christmas scored Wesson’s final points of the game with a 10-yard rushing touchdown. The Cobras elected to go for the two-point conversion but were unsuccessful with an incomplete pass to Green.

Sumrall finished off the game with the top offensive player for Sumrall, senior Conner Landrum, scoring two more touchdowns with only one successful extra point by Rodney, who completed an impressive five out of six extra point attempts for the night.

Christmas was the offensive leader for the Cobras with 138 yards rushing on 15 carries and two touchdowns. He also completed five of 14 passes for 111 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

Green led all receivers with three catches for 74 yards

“We as a whole had a great amount of effort,” said Christmas. “When we have the momentum, we just have to stop making simple mistakes. I have all the faith and belief in this team that we’ll get better.”

On defense, Kendrick Brown was the leading tackler with seven stops. Javoris Smith and Timothy Craft had six tackles apiece. Green recovered a fumble.

“I think our guys made a lot of improvement this week compared to last week’s game,” said Wesson coach Ronald Greer. “We shot ourselves in the foot a few times with some penalties that negated some big plays. We also had some breakdowns in our punting game that gave Sumrall a short field to work with.

“We must get better at defending the run when we are on defense,” continued Greer. “We will regroup and continue to work hard to improve next week to prepare for a very good West Lauderdale team.”

Wesson hosts West Lauderdale this Friday night at H.L. Stone Stadium at 7 p.m.