The Black and Gold had the lead at the end of the third quarter. The visiting Eagles then had their longest drive of the night, going 60 yards in eight plays. They scored and then went for the two-point conversion to take the lead at 21-14 with 9:37 left on the clock.
Jake Phelan hit Scott Smith with a 4-yard touchdown pass to end the Cowboy’s last drive with 20-seconds left on the clock.An incomplete pass ended the two-point attempt and saddled the ‘Boys with the defeat.
On the 87-yard drive the offensive line, coached by Brandon Aven, showed great poise and strong blocking technique. These young men do the tough work on the offensive side of the football. We have played 11 men in the offensive line on a consistent level during the season. These men consist of Devon Pontine, Noah Overton, Joe Newman, Ricky Jeffrey, Austin Brown, Nakoma Bailey, Adrian Shroyer, Kash Atwood, Ruben Royball, plus Tyler Pollock. Six of these men are freshmen, two are sophomores, one is a junior and two are seniors.
The defense held the Eagles to 230 yards in total offense, and allowed only one run in 48 attempts to go over eight yards.The ‘Boys held the Eagles to two completions for 39 yards. Leading tacklers for the Black and Gold were No. 25 Willis Begay, who had 10 stops for the night. He was followed by No. 44 Tala Atoafa, a senior linebacker, with nine, No. 28 J.C. Henderson and No. 70, J.R. Crawford, each with eight. Senior defensive tackle, and the strongest man in the defensive line, Fernando Olivas, added seven tackles. Crawford and Olivas man the inside tackles position on the defensive line and this is a tough place to play. Both of these seniors have done an outstanding job. Senior defensive end Alex Smith, No. 22, and his twin brother, Scott Smith, No. 21, added three tackles each. The twins are also the team’s top two receivers.
Junior linebacker Aaron Cochran, No. 32, chipped in with six tackles. Raul Lopez and Jake Phelan totaled three each. Overall, the stop-unit limited the Eagles to 13 first downs and two touchdowns, with six points coming from the Eagle’s outstanding field goal kicker.
Leading tacklers for the season are Arron Cochran with 43, Scott Smith 40, 10 of which are behind the LOS. Third on the list is Fernando Olivas with 35, Jake Phelan with 34, followed by T.J. Shelton’s 31, Nate Walsh’s 30, J.C. Henderson’s 27, J.R. Crawford’s 24, and Atoafa and Begay with 23 each. Alex Smith is the 11th member of the Cowboys to have 20 or more tackles in the season and he has 21.
Sebastian Clarke scored 8 points, with a TD and a two-point conversion. Jake Phelan ran in a touchdown and threw a touchdown strike to Scott Smith. Phelan led the ‘Boys in rushing, with 71 yards and hit on 10 of 18 passes for 148 yards. Clarke leads in scoring for the season, with 46 points from six touchdowns and 10 extra points. He is followed by freshman fullback T. J. Shelton, No. 16, who also has six touchdowns for 36 points. Clarke also leads in rushing, covering 565 yards on 73 carries for a very good 7.7 yards and carry average. Shelton is second with 488 yards on 76 carries and an impressive 6.4 average running inside. He also has the two longest runs of the season, going 72 and 55 yards, and the second longest pass catch with a 39-yarder.
Dylan Mobley, No. 9, leads in passing, throwing 73 times for 336 yards, a 36 percent passing average. He also has the most total attempts, having put the ball in play by the pass and run 102 times for 381 yards. Second in passing is Jake Phelan, No. 11, with 21 attempts, 11 completions for 213 yards and a 52 percent passing average. Phelan has 72 total offensive plays for 412 yards.
Alex Smith leads in receiving, with 21 for 213 yards. He is followed by Scott Smith who has eight catches and 144 yards plus the longest pass play of the year, 65 yards from Jake Phelan. T. J. Shelton has three for 96 yards. Raul Lopez, a strong-legged kicker, has a 33.6 punting average off of 10 kicks. His longest is 39 yards. Clarke has the longest punt of the season with a 48-yarder.
J.C. Henderson leads the team in total plays, with 644 for the year. Second is Clarke with 629, followed by Phelan 588, Shelton 578, Scott Smith 572, Alex Smith 570, Devon Pontine, No. 50, with 534, Noah Overton No. 68, with 443, Nate Walsh, No. 5, 430, Joe Newman, No. 55, 395 plays, Aaron Cochran 371, Fernando Olivas, No. 30, with 356, and Dylan Mobley, with 340 plays in the season.Ricky Jeffrey, No. 63, rounds out the top 14 totals and men over 300 plays with 316.
Did you know? The Kickoff Golf Classic was a big success and much of it was due to hard work done by the senior parents and Debbie Cook. Thanks to all and a special thanks to Jeff Bollig and Evelyn Reynolds of Flat Tops Fuel for the pig they donated for the Kickoff Golf Classic Pigskin Cook Out.
