When you out-gain a team by almost 100 yards in total offense and your defense makes multiple big stops you should win the ball game. Murphy’s Law says “If something can go wrong, it will.” 

After playing one of their best games in years, the Quitman Bulldogs literally fell just short of victory last Friday night before losing to Scurry-Rosser 28-21 in overtime (OT).

Quitman had driven deep into Wildcat territory in a 21-21 game, but a running loss and a quarterback sack gave them the ball back on the Scurry-Rosser 46-yard line. Senior Ty Holland, who had a great game on both sides of the ball, took a hand-off from Ford Tannebaum on a misdirection play and rambled 15 yards to the 31. 

As the seconds were ticking off, quarterback Gavin Oakes ripped a pass down the middle to Holland who made an incredible circus catch as he was falling. Unfortunately, he was just short of a touchdown. As the Bulldogs hurried to the line of scrimmage, time ran out before they could get set to run a play. The Bulldogs had no time outs left.

“We practice that situation. We just couldn’t get set up in time before the clock ran out,” Head Coach Bryan Oakes said. “Our kids played a great ball game and we did a good job on offense and defense.”

For the game, Quitman had 303 yards on offense to 238 for the Wildcats. Gavin Oakes had another good running game as the junior quarterback ran for 132 yards on 18 carries, scoring one touchdown (TD). He also was 3-6 for 42 yards through the air. Hard-running junior Wyatt Hightower fought for 96 yards on 25 totes, while Holland added four carries for 17 yards and a TD. Ford Tannebaum added 18 yards on one carry and a TD. Alex Burman had two catches for 15 yards.

The Bulldogs got good games once again from the offensive and defensive lines.

“This one was a hard pill to swallow,” Coach Oakes said. “What we are seeing is the process of learning how to win. You see where we came back after the third quarter was a flop. In the third quarter our kids were playing not to lose. During the weather delay we talked about playing the way we did in the first half. We told them play the way you know how and we will be fine and the result was they kept coming back and overcoming adversity. We had some great defensive stops.”

The Bulldog defensive line did a good job beating the Wildcat linemen off the line of scrimmage.

“Hunter Batchelder had a great game on both sides of the ball. Also on defense Jonathan Lacy, Christian James and Justin Matthews played well,” Oakes added. “You have to give the whole team credit. Part of learning to win is hanging in there, and to keep getting after it, and our kids did that. We plan on that to carry over this week against Queen City.”

Neither team scored during the first quarter and midway through the second period. The Bulldogs took over on the Wildcat 39-yard line after a punt with just over seven minutes to go in the half. Hightower powered his way on runs of 10 and four yards. Gavin Oakes then ran 37 yards to the Scurry-Rosser 12. Oakes again took the ball nine yards. Holland ran it in from three yards for the score. Mariano Manriquez kicked the first of three perfect extra points and Quitman led 7-0.

A Tannebaum 18-yard run with 44 seconds left in the half gave Quitman a 14-0 advantage. The Wildcats came back with scores on long runs by Terrell Blanton to make it a 14-14 game. 

A lightning scare cleared the field for 30 minutes. Quitman came back strong and scored on a seven play, 37-yard drive capped by Gavin Oakes faking to Hightower and going in to score untouched with 9:18 left in the game. The Wildcats came back to score with just over six minutes to play on a 13-yard pass play to knot the score 21-21.

Scurry-Rosser got the ball first in OT and scored on a 20-yard run by the Wildcat quarterback. The Bulldogs could not get closer than the 14-yard line and the game ended with Scurry-Rosser taking the 28-21 victory.

The Bulldogs will face a 2-0 Queen City team coming off an 18-14 win over Union Grove.

Homecoming activities will begin at Bud Moody Stadium at 6:55 p.m. with kick-off at 7:30 p.m.