COMFORT – The Bobcat football team hosted Bandera Friday for homecoming and Comfort had a fast start and took a two touchdown lead early but couldn’t maintain the momentum.
Bandera had the lead by halftime and then outscored the Bobcats in the second half, punctuated with two fourth-quarter touchdowns on its way to a 35-29 victory.
Friday’s setback closes out non-district for Comfort and leaves them with a record of 2-3 overall. The Bobcats are off Friday and open district play Oct. 18 hosting Rogers.
Topper Sterling put the Bobcats up 13-0 midway through the first quarter with touchdown runs of 10 and 80 yards.
Jared Valadez then intercepted a pass off Bandera quarterback Dylan Peace and the Bobcats had the ball at the Bulldogs 33-yard line but a bad snap gave the rock back to Bandera.
Comfort coach Jay Rieken said mistakes like that are hurting his team.
“Two fumbled snaps really cost us; on that first one we had a chance to put some doubt in their mind, but we let them back in it,” he said. “We had a chance to go up 20 Star photo by Kerry Barboza
on them and put pressure on them.”
Instead, Bandera answered with two TDs of its own in the second. Peace tossed a touchdown pass to Breydan Gherman who rambled in from 50 yards to give the Bulldogs a 14-13 lead at halftime after they made both extra points.
Bandera added to its lead in the third after Jeffry Thomas hauled in a 17-yard pass from Peace and the Bulldogs bumped their lead to 21-13, but Comfort fired back and retook the lead.
Gio Lopez capped a 10-play Comfort drive with a 1-yard plunge. The Cats went for two and the run failed to make it 21-19.
Comfort went with an onside kick and recovered it near midfield. The Bobcats marched 49 yards on seven plays and went back on top at 26-21 after Valadez ran straight through the teeth of the Bulldogs defense on a 2-yard score.
On Bandera’s ensuing drive, Comfort’s Omar Rivera intercepted a Peace pass and returned it to the Bulldogs 14. The Bobcats settled for a 26-yard field goal and bumped their lead to 29-21 with 11:55 left in the contest.
However, the rest of the night belonged to the Bulldogs as they tallied the final two scores of the game. Gherman tacked on two more TD runs, of 3 and 6 yards, and Bandera retook the lead at 35-29 with 2:01 left.
Comfort only had the ball twice in the final quarter and committed four penalties on those two drives to put them in tough down and distances.
“We’re not geared for 2nd and 25,” Rieken said. “We know that but we kept shooting ourselves in the foot. It happens and we’ll take it as a learning experience.”
Comfort punted on one of the drives and then gave the ball back to Bandera after they didn’t convert on a fourth and 25 with less than a minute left.
The Bulldogs were able to run out the clock from there and secure the victory.
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