Despite 45-13 Loss Against Austin Vandegrift, Bright Spots Shined for the San Angelo Bobcats

SAN ANGELO, TX — Friday night’s game against Austin Vandegrift showed much to and about the Central Bobcats. On the one hand, a perennial powerhouse school came to San Angelo Stadium and kicked our hometown heroes up and down the field. But, on the other hand, the ‘Cats showed just how tough they could be this season. The final score showed a lopsided 45-13 defeat for the Bobcats, but the game revealed so much more.

First, the Bobcat defense struggled the entire night to keep the Vipers off of the scoreboard. Blown coverages, miscommunications, and poor tackling made up much of their performance. However, one crucial virtue that this defense showed outweighs the poor performance. This team has grit. Coach Crane complimented his defense after the game.

“I’m proud of the effort of our team. I thought we continued to play hard throughout the game. So, that was good to see. I talked to them about how (this game) is preparing us for our district opponents on our district schedule,” the ball coach said.

The ‘Cats showed last night that no matter what the score was, how far behind they were, or what bad situation they were in, they would not give up. Although Vandegrift put up too many points on the board, there were occasions when the Bobcats stopped the Vipers cold.

The Bobcats turned the ball over in their territory just before the half, after back-to-back touchdowns by the Vipers. The defense had to answer, and they did. They held Vandegrift on three straight plays inside the 15-yard line and forced a field goal. That grit is what will carry the Bobcats through the rest of the season. Coach Crane and the rest of the staff will continue to help this squad improve.

The defensive line got after the Viper’s quarterback throughout the night, constantly putting him under pressure and even recording more than one sack. In the run game, the defensive front held fast, minus the long TD run in the 4th quarter when a gassed Bobcat defense could no longer keep up the defensive front held fast. Any yards the Vipers gained on the ground was fought for tooth and nail. If the defensive line and linebackers continue to play at this level, teams will look to throw rather than face this meatgrinder.

The Bobcats’ secondary needs work. However, we should not take anything away from the Vandegrift quarterback and receiving group. These athletes are well coached and insanely athletic. They played an almost perfect game last night as the quarterback went 15/19 and over 230 yards passing. However, miscommunications and poor tackling in the Bobcat’s secondary led to open receivers and long touchdowns all night. With an average of 16 yards per pass, no team can expect to keep an offense out of the endzone for long.

With the criticism out of the way, several bright spots in the secondary should be focused on and cultivated further. Some incompletions that the Viper quarterback threw could have been interceptions. The safeties and cornerbacks in coverage had themselves in the perfect position to make the play. With better communication between pre- and post-snap, those open receivers will not be as much of an issue. This group can play well together, and they have shown that they can hang with talented athletes. Both Kileen Shoemaker and El Paso Montwood had insanely gifted receivers, but the Bobcat secondary eventually kept both those groups in check.

Offensively, the Bobcats faced a ranked opponent whose biggest strength was their defense. The ‘Cats earned every yard, every first down, and every point scored.

“That’s a really good defense, you know? They certainly didn’t give anything for free. We are just going to try to learn from this and get better next week,” Crane said.

Execution on 3rd and 4th down became the downfall of the Bobcats in a game that needed to be a back and forth sprint. Too many times, the Bobcats had the ball deep in Viper territory only to be stonewalled inside the 10-yard line. Settling for field goals, and worse, failing to convert on 4th down. Doing this cannot keep the ‘Cats in the game against these kinds of teams.

The rushing attack that put up 400 rushing yards against El Paso Montwood ran into a wall in the first half. Tyler Hill had to be the source of production through the air, and for the most part, the junior starting quarterback answered that call. The majority of his throws were on target and on time. He struggled at the beginning of the first half, leaving too much air under the ball, but quickly settled in and went to work. He did have one interception, but that came off of the hands of one of his receivers and into the breadbasket of the Viper defense. The receivers’ routes have steadily improved through the first three games, and each one of them is more dangerous than the week before. Securing the catch remains one of the Bobcats’ greatest strengths as the number of drops remains next to none.

The offensive line delivered another solid performance across the board. Vandegrift’s defense proved to be exceptionally talented, and for the most part, the O-line held fast. They continued to grind against the defense and eventually wore them down in the second half, allowing their rushing attack to produce.

My hat had to go off to RB Samuel Navarrette for his performance last night. The bruiser was utterly shut down at the beginning of the game, with less than 35 yards rushing before halftime. However, the bell cow went to work in the second half, recording an additional 15 carries (for a total of 25) and over 100 yards rushing. This performance makes his second week in a row to top 100 yards on the ground. The amount of damage a running back can do if he can run the ball deep into the second half is evident. As the bruising rushing attack begins to affect the defense more and more, the holes start growing a little wider, and the defense starts to get a little gun shy when challenging a powerful back in the middle of the line.

At the end of this week, the Bobcats are frustrated, and rightfully so, but this loss can be a huge positive for this squad as we get deeper and deeper into the season. The Bobcats now know what it’s like to face a Top 25 team in the state and what it is going to take to compete at this level. If the Bobcats hope to make a deep playoff run this year, these are the kind of schools that the Bobcats will face. Even in their district, Midland Legacy almost took down Arlington Martin last night in a game that came down to the wire.

I am proud of how the Bobcats finished the game last night and am looking forward to how these guys respond to this loss.

The ‘Cats need to grow fast because they face another talented squad next week when they travel up to Canyon to take on the Amarillo Tascosa Rebels on Sept. 17 at West Texas A&M’s Buffalo Stadium at 7 p.m. Friday night, this team soundly defeated Odessa Permian, 40-21. The week prior, on Sept. 3, Tascosa almost knocked off Midland Legacy, narrowly losing by a field goal, 51-48.