By Travis Chapman
Friday night brought a big time matchup to Apache Stadium where the Apaches of Glenbrook took on the 3A-Bossier Bearkats. The Apaches fought hard in week 2, and came within striking distance a few times, but the Bearkats pulled away late, 49-20. This football game was much closer than the final score showed.
Bossier set the tone for the night and returned the opening kickoff all the way for a touchdown. The Bearkats struck first and never looked back. They were up quickly, 7-0. The Apache offense trotted out on the field with the Webster Parish Week-1, Player of the Week at the helm, Rowdy Ryan Reagan. Rowdy picked up a quick 12-yards and moved the chains but a big third down stop by the Bearkats forced a first series punt. On the next defensive set, Super Slade Lollar came up with a huge sack for a loss of 9-yards. Colt-Man On Fire-Jellum blew through the Bearkat line and busted the play to pieces. That set up a great Apache defensive play where a swarm of Apaches tackled a fake punt attempt by the Bearkats. The Apaches showed some promise on the next offensive set but had to punt.
The Bearkats took over with good field position. After a costly face mask, it set the Bearkats up deep in Apache territory. The young Apache defense came in strong with two outstanding 8th graders, Ace Rollen and Tae Morris who tag-teamed a frog splash from the top rope to sack the shifty Bearkat QB. The Bearkat QB came back with a 35-yard pass to the endzone for another Bearkat score. The Apaches trailed, 14-0.
The Apaches came out and looked to catch up to the Bearkat early scores. Rowdy Reagan got into a good rhythm and completed several passes to Golden Gage White, Raging Ryder Malone and The Dime Darron Hollingsworth for several first downs. Huddy Glasscock and Rowdy also combined several rushes to move the chains well into Bearkat territory. But on the 35-yard line with good momentum, a pass fell just out of the hands of Golden Gage on a 4th down and short that turned the ball over and gave the Bearkats the momentum and a new set of downs. The Bearkats moved the ball down the field and picked up 2 first downs. Super Slade and Crazy Connor Bolton made great plays, but a costly offsides on 4th down gave the Bearkats a new set of downs. The Strong Man, Nolan Still blew through the Bearkats and sacked the QB to put the Bearkats behind the chains. T-Bubba Edwards came up with a big pass breakup to force a long third down, but the Bearkat RB, who will definitely be playing football on Saturdays in a short time, made several Apaches miss and put on a Masterclass of the juke as he danced 22-yards for another Bearkat touchdown. The Apaches trailed 21-0.
Your Apaches showed great grit on the next set. Carson Whitehead made a great run and got another 15 yards tacked on by the Bearkat unsportsmanlike penalty. Rowdy Ryan found Fantastic Festervan for a gain of 30 yards. The big gains set up Golden Gage to take the direct snap and he powered into the endzone behind The Strong Man, Nolan Still for the first Apache touchdown. The score narrowed, 21-7 in favor of the Bearkats.
The next possession, the Apaches smelled blood on the spear. They forced the Bearkats straight backward on every play and on the third-down play, a bad snap over the head of the Bearkat QB was recovered by the Apaches. The Apache offense took over on the 10-yard line and the dynamic duo of Rowdy to The Dime found the end zone for another quick score for the Apaches. The Bearkat lead shrank even more, 21-14 with 2:28 left in the first half.
The Bearkats continued to only have to work with half the field on offense with less than stellar kick return coverage, as they returned the kick to the 41-yard line that gave them exceptional field position. After several, let’s call it, “questionable” calls, the best linebacker on the field, for either team, Huddy Glasscock was ejected from the contest. That paved the way for the Bearkats, who worked extremely quickly and punched it in again with great running from the next level running back to stretch the lead to 28-14 at halftime.
After awesome halftime festivities, the defenses paved the way for most of the third quarter for the Apaches and Bearkats as each team punted on their first 3 possessions of the second half. On the next possession for the Bearkats, the Apache defense pinned its ears back. T-Bubba Edwards had a big sack of the QB, and a big pass break up on consecutive plays. T-Bubba’s outstanding play opened the door for Colt-Man on Fire-to blow through the Bearkat protection with a huge punt block that Super Slade Lollar returned for the Apache touchdown. The Apache’s were back in striking distance, but trailed 28-20 after the missed extra point in the 4th quarter.
The battle continued with the Apaches on defense. The Bearkats moved the ball. The Apaches would seemingly stop the Bearkats, but a HUGE roughing the passer call kept the Bearkats in motion. In the next two plays, the outstanding Bearkat back scored again from 20-yards. The Bearkats responded, 35-20. The Apache defense would struggle with fresh legs as most players did not come off the field for much of the game, and the Bearkats scored on its next possession to stretch the lead late in the 4th to 42-20. After one play on the next Apache possession, the Bearkats showed their depth and tip drill abilities after a great pass from Rowdy went in and out of the hands of the Apache receiver that went back the other direction in Bearkat hands to the one-yard line. The Bearkats would punch it in again for the final score of the night, 49-20.
The young Apaches fought hard against the best Bossier Bearkat team they have had in at least a decade. They have no less than two players that will go on to play college football. Your Apaches showed great resolve in the face of being down 21-0, early. They didn’t quit and clawed their way to within one score multiple times but fell short in the contest. The Apaches have an outstanding couching staff, with tons of YOUNG talent. This was great adversity to go through that will benefit them later in the season.
Make the trek down Highway 371, this Thursday night where the Apaches will take on the Redskins of Metropolitan Ringgold at 7 p.m. If you can’t make the game in person, tune in to 1240 KASO or “listen live” from KBEF.com on your mobile device as my partner in crime, Jerame Durden and I will be on the 1’s and 2’s providing play by play action for the game. What a great day to be an Apache!!!
