Bobcats tame Mustangs for third straight victory

Bobcats tame Mustangs for third straight victory

BY KERRY BARBOZA Sports Editor

COMFORT – Comfort entered Friday’s district contest at home against Natalia playing their best football of the year so far.

After an 0-3 start, the Bobcats had won their two previous games by a combined score of 98-31 and were looking to keep the train rolling against the Mustangs.

“Things are starting to click,” Comfort coach Jay Rieken said leading up to Friday’s District 15-3A DII contest at Bobcat Stadium.

Things were certainly clicking for Comfort Friday on both sides of the ball as they cruised to a 24-0 victory.

Comfort scored on its opening possession for the 7-0 lead just three minutes into the contest and that would be all the points they would need to secure the win since their defense pitched a shutout, their first of the season.

Comfort improves to 3-3 overall and has won three straight. The Bobcats are 2-0 in district and are off this coming Friday. They’ll resume district play Oct. 13 at Karnes City.

Comfort’s Topper Sterling almost took the opening kickoff to the house but was ankle tackled at the Mustangs’ 30-yard line. The Bobcats marched the ball down the field and on a 1st and goal at the 5-yard line, Bobcats QB Micah Nye scored to cap an 8-play drive and the 7-0 lead.

Defensively, the Bobcats came up with turnovers on Natalia’s first two drives.

Israel Lopez intercepted a Natalia pass on their sixth play of the game, and on the Mustangs’ next drive, Gio Lopez sacked the quarterback, stripped the ball and fell on it to give Comfort a short field at the Natalia 39-yard line.

Comfort moved the ball down to the Mustangs 1-yard line and on a 4th and goal from the 1, Nye punched it in on a quarterback sneak for his second score of the night to make it 14-0 with 7:45 remaining in the half.

Late in the first half, Natalia had a bad snap and a few penalties that backed them up. Rieken called a timeout and the Bobcats ended up with possession after Natalia went for it on 4th and 4 from their own 23 and didn’t get the first down.

Comfort took over at the Mustangs’ 25 with 19 seconds before halftime and ran one play to shorten the field and give themselves a shot at a field goal.

The Bobcats gained two yards on their first play and then trotted out Julio Lopez-Torres for a 40-yard attempt. Natalia called a timeout to try and ice Lopez-Torres but it didn’t work. The senior sailed the ball through the uprights at the halftime buzzer to give Comfort a 17-0 lead at the break.

Neither team scored in the third quarter as the teams traded possessions. But early in the fourth, the Bobcats put the icing on the shutout win with a 25-yard touchdown pass from Nye to Gio Lopez with 10:39 remaining in the game.

Lopez-Torres booted the extra point to make it 24-0 and that’s where it stayed as neither team scored after that. For more on the Bobcats, see the Star.