Hosting perennial 2A power Mason is a tall task for almost any team. Ballinger, in the middle of a transition year and with an overwhelmingly young team, did their best to slow down the Punchers, but as they have done in every game this year the Punchers dominated to a 47-0 victory.
Ballinger would stem the tide early as their defense would force Mason to punt early in the 1st quarter. Playing against Mason’s defense that has only given up 26 points on the entire year, Ballinger’s offense would not be able to keep their defense off of the field. As the Ballinger defense wore down the Puncher’s were able to start finishing drives.
A 14 point 1st quarter was a valiant effort by the Bearcat defense to keep the game close, but with a 24 point 2nd quarter the Puncher’s effectively put the game away, leading 38-0 at halftime.
With a touchdown, blocked extra point and a field goal in the 3rd quarter the game would reach its final score of 47-0.
It is hard to find positives in a game with such a lopsided score, but there were some. “There were many times we were doing very well.” Lipsey said “We’d have them in third and long or fourth down and then we’d give up a big play for a score. We have to stay focused in those situations and not let our foot off.”
Another positive for the Bearcats was 4th quarter play. The defense did not allow the Punchers to score as they continued to play tough until the final seconds, even with the game out of reach. Jaedan Coy came in at quarterback and was able to bring some spark to the offense as well. Xavier Nunez was smothered by the Puncher defense and was only able to complete 1of14 passes for 22 yards. When Coy came in and gave the Punchers a different look he was able to spread the ball around and completed 5of7 passes for 44 yards to four different receivers in the late minutes of the game.
Going with Coy seemed to spark the Bearcats, as the line seemingly blocked harder and receivers were running their routes as hard as they were at the beginning of the game. It would be very surprising at this point if we did not see more of Coy at quarterback as we head in to district play.
This week marks the start of district play. Everyone is now 0-0 again and the games will truly matter. Ballinger will be hosting the Reagan County Owls for Homecoming and this looks like a very close game on paper.
Ballinger’s Homecoming game versus Reagan County will kickoff at 7:30PM October 13th.
