Bobcats edged by Arrows 14-13 on Homecoming

Posted

BROOKINGS – In games that come down to the wire, even the smallest of mistakes can turn out to be costly.

That was the case in the Bobcats’ 14-13 Homecoming loss to Watertown on Friday at DJD Stadium.

The Arrows built a 14-0 lead before Brookings rallied with a pair of touchdowns, but a muffed extra-point attempt proved to be the difference.

“We have to learn how to finish – we had some drives that we moved the ball, but then we got down to where we didn’t finish,” said Bobcat head coach Lee Schmidt. “Like I just told them, it’s a combination of a lot of things: we had screwups on defense; we had screwups on offense; we had a special teams’ blunder – all of those things – you can’t get away with a football game with a team that is even with you and make more mistakes than they did, and I thought we did tonight.

“It’s not about effort; it’s not about attitude; it’s just skill level. We need to be more skilled – we need to make sure we do our job the way we are supposed to.”

As has been the case most of the season, the ‘Cats played from behind right out of the gate.

Watertown drove 68 yards in 12 plays on its first possession to get on the scoreboard – a Brennan Gabriel to Ben DeVille pass play that covered 15 yards on a third-and-11. The two had hooked up for nine yards and a first down on a fourth-and-7 from the Bobcat 35-yard-line.

Blake Mitchell’s PAT kick was good to give the Arrows a 7-0 advantage with 7 minutes to play in the first quarter.

Midway through the second quarter, the game was delayed due to lightning within a 10-mile radius of the stadium.

After the delay, Brookings had a chance to cut into the deficit, but Justin Devine’s 32-yard field goal attempt sailed left and the score was still 7-0 in favor of the Arrows at halftime.

The Bobcats received the kick to open the second half and on a third-and-7 from their own 36, Nick Hardin’s pass was picked off by Devin Mooney and returned 38 yards to the end zone for a touchdown.

Mitchell was good with the PAT and the Arrows led by 14 just over 2 minutes into the second half.

Late in the third quarter, Carter Eidem broke off a 58-yard run to the Watertown 1-yard line, and then the sophomore running back scored on a fourth-and-goal from the 1 with 2:37 left on the clock.

Devine’s PAT kick cut the Arrow lead in half at 14-7.

With 8:02 left in the game, Dillon Jensen stripped Gabriel and then recovered the fumble right on the Jackrabbit emblem at midfield.

It took the ‘Cats 10 plays to move the ball 50 yards as Parker Beers rambled in from 4 yards out on a second-and-1 with 4:51 to play.

But the snap from center was mishandled on the PAT, and the Arrows still led, 14-13.

The Brookings defense gave the home team one more chance, though, as they forced the Arrows to punt and the Bobcats took over at their own 46 with 2:20 left in the game.

Devine picked up the initial first down with a 4-yard run and Hardin connected with Jay Wilber for a 9-yard gain to move the sticks the second time to the Watertown 26.

With just one timeout left, Hardin spiked the ball to stop the clock on first down, and then threw an incomplete pass on second.

Eidem picked up half the yardage on a run to the right side to bring up a fourth-and-5 as the Bobcats took their final timeout with 1:04 on the clock.

But the fourth-down pass was incomplete and the Arrows kneeled twice to run out the clock for the one-point win.

Brookings, which dropped to 2-2 on the season, picked up 197 yards rushing, led by Eidem’s 80 yards on seven carries.

Beers added 55 on 13 touches while Devine had 37 and Hardin 35 on seven rushes apiece.

Hardin completed 10-of-17 passes for 71 yards with one interception as Isaac von Fischer caught five passes for 32 yards and Wilber gained 33 yards on four catches.

Defensively, Jacob Schoon and Devine had eight and seven tackles, respectively, as Ryan McMacken finished with six.

For the Arrows, who improved to 2-2, Gabriel went 7-of-12 through the air for 72 yards and a score, to go along with 51 yards on 13 carries.

Blake Holden earned 71 yards on 20 rushes as Deville caught four passes for 47 yards and a TD; Max Sonne hauled in two for 17 and Garrett Determan caught one pass for 8 yards.

Brookings travels to Pierre on Friday. Game time is 7 p.m. at Hollister Field.