The Wesson Cobras struck first and set the tone against Sumrall Friday night, but were eventually ground down by the Bobcats’ running game in an 18-15 loss.

As soon as the game started, an opening kickoff return for a touchdown by Wesson’s Shemar Dickerson set the tone and atmosphere for the game and Wesson wanted to keep it that way. The defense tried to capitalize on that early success from the offense and held their own with a dominate inside attack against the Bobcat offense. Every snap had at least three cobra defenders rushing to the ball and executing a very skilled team defense approach.

“Our line wasn’t as physical as they needed to be on the offensive side and we need to be 100 percent better,” said Cobra quarterback Antrelle Sims. “Our defense were the warriors of this game, so moving forward I need to work on passing and being more in-sync with my receivers.”

A sluggish later half kept the score 6 to nothing in favor of the Cobras, but an advancing offensive performance from the Bobcats got them inside the Cobra 10 yard-line and capitalized with a quick inside slant play to tie the ballgame with a little more than 5 minutes to play in the half.

Both teams went back and forth for that remaining 5 minutes, resulting in the Bobcats having control of the ball in the last seconds of the half with the clock striking zero. But, on a last pass that went unsuccessful, a clock adjustment called for three seconds to be added, and those seconds gave the Bobcats time to grab the lead going into the half.

“I think our defense played very well tonight but I felt the offense could’ve played a lot better than that.” said linebacker Scott Hutt. “We need to work on playing together as a team and work on our fundamentals in practice next week.”

Opening the second half, the Cobras came out fighting. Deferring to this half and getting to go on the defensive, they took the opportunity to continue to pop the Bobcats in the mouth and force an early safety, bringing the score to a narrower gap of 12-8.

Another back and forth performance from both teams closed out the third quarter, keeping the score 12-8. The Bobcats, again asserting themselves as a very strong running team, pushed down the field and punched in a quick touchdown to extend their lead to 18-8.

“My adrenaline was pumping and we needed that touchdown really bad to stay in this game,” said Damian Smith. “We have to get our offense better and continue to work, work, work.”

Wesson managed to thrill the Bobcats one more time, returning a second kickoff for a touchdown as Damian Smith went 80 yards to the endzone, with the resulting point after narrowing the score to 18-15.

But the remaining moments of the game became a free-for-all passing affair, with both teams trying to control the clock. In the end the Bobcats sealed the victory 18-15.

“We want to take this loss as a lesson here tonight,” said Wesson coach Jeremy Loy. “Our defense played great tonight, shutting down a top 12 player, but both sides of the ball can learn from tonight and move forward in gameplay. I don’t at all want my boys to hang their heads tonight. I’m a proud coach.”

Story by Paden Phillips