Sterling leads Comfort team that is starting to click

Sterling leads Comfort team that is starting to click

KERRY BARBOZA Sports Editor

At one point during last week’s Comfort football game at Nixon-Smiley, Bobcats running back Topper Sterling left the contest but was 16 yards shy of the single-game rushing record set by Justin Faulkner in 2016.

Sterling reentered the game and it took him two carries to get the record and then he left the game.

When he was done, Sterling rushed for 382 yards on 27 carries to break the old mark set by Faulkner when he rushed for 374 yards against Johnson City.

Comfort coach Jay Rieken said the line has done a great job blocking for Sterling who has 683 rushing yards in the last two games and has already passed 1,000 yards for the season. Sterling has 1,047 yards on 109 attempts for an average of 9.61 yards per pop.

“Topper had a great game and the lineman have done a fantastic job,” Rieken said.

Rieken said he knew Sterling would want to reenter the game. The sophomore running back had 301 yards in the game before and knew he was close to the record, but was pulled because the game was so lopsided.

“The week before I pulled him early,” the coach said. “(Last week) I knew he had run for a lot and he was only 16 yards away from breaking the record, so he went back in.” Rieken said it’s not just Sterling that is starting to play well. The team has scored 55 and 43 points in its last two games, both wins.

The 43-16 victory over Nixon- Smiley was their district opener and leaves the Bobcats at 2-3 overall and 1-0 in league play.

“We’re starting to click and starting to figure it out,” Rieken said. “The kids have bought in; we’re fixing some things we had trouble with and it’s been good. We’re kind of hitting our stride right now, hopefully we can win a few more.”

Comfort continues 15-3A DII action Friday at home against Natalia. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

Natalia was off last week so they’ve had an extra week to prepare for the Bobcats. The Mustangs are 0-4 but Rieken said they are way better than their record because they’ve lost to some really good teams.

Natalia has lost to Jourdanton, Marion, Devine and Lytle.

“The teams they lost to are all good and it took a while for those teams to wear Natalia down,” Rieken said. “They run the spread and they’re pretty big, they play good, sound ball. They lost a lot of experienced players and they’re coming off a bye week and I hope the bye week hurt them on momentum.”

Rieken said they’re still dealing with injuries and have eight players out right now. He said they should get a couple back this week and then they’ll go on bye after Friday and hope to have a few more back after the break.