The Tioga Bulldogs football team’s two-game winning streak came to a halt with a 47-38 road loss to the Tom Bean Tomcats on Oct. 3.
The Tomcats relied on opportune plays on defense, collecting three turnovers, and their explosive offense, which generated almost 500 yards of total offense and six touchdowns, to pull out the win.
“It was a little bit of a reality check for us that if you want to win the big-time games, it's going to take all four quarters, especially when you face a team on the road that's undefeated,” said Zach Birdwell, Tioga athletic director and head football coach. “We didn't come out and play it to our standard on any side of the ball early on and in the long run ended up costing us in a tough one. … But we'd much rather get a reality check right now in Week 2 of district and learn from it while we still have the ability to fix things than Week 2 of the playoffs, like we did last year, where we're turning in gear today.”
Tom Bean jumped out to an early 14-0 lead after quarterback Donnie Hooten opened the game with a 6-yard touchdown pass to receiver Camden Stephens, followed by Hooten calling his own number and powering through Tioga’s defense for a short touchdown run.
Tioga responded with a short touchdown run of their own by quarterback Greeley McAden, cutting the ' lead to 14-6 after a successful 2-point conversion run also by McAden.
The Tomcats extended their lead by 10 points when Hooten crashed into the end zone for his second rushing touchdown, followed by a short field goal, making the score 24-8.
The Bulldogs answered with a 57-yard touchdown run by McAden, his second rushing score of the night, to make the score 24-16 after McAden called his own number on a successful 2-point conversion run.
Tom Bean continued to pour on the points when Hooten connected with receiver Brayden Bomar for a 25-yard touchdown pass, pushing the Tomcats' lead back to two touchdowns.
Tioga refused to go away, with McAden powering into the end zone for the third time, cutting Tom Bean’s lead to 3124 after McAden found receiver Jaxson Hurst on the 2-point play.
The Tomcats answered McAden’s rushing touchdown with another of their own, this time by running back Dallas Peavey, putting them up 38-24.
On Tioga’s next possession, McAden found receiver Jake David wide open behind the Tom Bean defense for a 24-yard touchdown pass, making it a onescore game at 38-30.
Hooten scrambled to his left and connected with Stephens for the Tomcats' final touchdown, putting Tom Bean up 44-28 after a missed extra point kick.
The Tomcats would add a second field goal to make the score 47-30, and McAden would use his legs late in the fourth quarter to find his fourth rushing touchdown and fourth 2-point conversion, but Tom Bean would hold on to win 47-38.
Hooten finished the night with 346 yards of total offense and 5 touchdowns.
“He did exactly what big-time quarterbacks do; he had a big-time game,” Birdwell said. “They threw and caught extremely well, and they they executed on offense to start the game, and we didn't. … We ended up with three turnovers; they ended up with one and just about every other drive was a touchdown from either of the teams and those three turnovers ended up being the difference in the game.”
Despite the loss, Birdwell spoke highly of the Bulldogs' offense that finished with 635 yards of total offense and five touchdowns and said the biggest takeaway is that the team still has time to get even better overall.
“There are a lot of teams that go without a 600-yard offensive game in a season, and we had one in a loss, so there are positives there,” he said. “We were able to move the ball and score; we just have to clean up the turnovers. … But the biggest positives are that all of our mistakes are fixable, and we have a chance to [correct] them. That’s our focus these next two weeks—getting things fixed for the Whitewright game, heading into our bye next week, and then being ready for two big district games with Alvord and Wolfe City.”
