Bobcats and LadyCats Hit the Road Running and Riding!!
August 31, 2009
Well, the Newcastle Bobcats and LadyCats athletic teams are back in the groove of school, practice and games!! It seems like the road has been their home for the first couple of weeks! The Ladycats have been playing volleyball games for a couple of weeks and this weekend the Bobcats kicked off their new season with a road game in Jayton. Early results indicate that both teams – Bobcats and Ladycats – will be right in the middle of contending for a district championship!
The Ladycats volleyball team has continued to progress each week. They played Abilene Christian High School and Bronte High School in Abilene and lost two close matches but fought hard and gained a great deal of experience against two volleyball powerhouses! The weekend before their matches in Abilene, ACHS had won the Albany volleyball tournament and Bronte has always qualified for the playoffs in volleyball.
No rest for the weary because the Ladycats finished off that week with the Lu Allen Memorial Tournament in Graham. You talk about some strong volleyball teams!!! Windthorst and Bushland were in the Ladycats’ small school division along with several other super volleyball teams like Nocona and Holiday. The Ladycats went into the tournament knowing that winning would be very tough but that several of the teams they would face would be strong teams in the playoffs. Bushland has won the state championship in 2-A the past two years and for gosh sakes everyone knows what kind of team Windthorst has! Quite a challenge for the Ladycats, but they improved both days and ended up playing the Holiday Lady Eagles for the silver bracket championship. They lost the first game to Holiday in a very close one but they didn’t give up and came back to take the second game and was ahead 20-16 in the third game when the Lady Eagles grabbed the momentum and ended up winning the match 2-1.
This past week the Ladycats traveled to Jacksboro to take on the vaunted 2-A Lady Tigers in their brand new gym! It was a beautiful gym and a great match for the Ladycats! It went back and forth with the Ladycats winning games two and three and then in the tie-breaker game fifth game our Ladycats decided to show the Lady Tigers exactly what a small, rural school in Young County can do when backed into a corner. Our Ladycats ended the match with a 15-8 victory in game number five!
Friday night the Ladycats faced the always tough Aspermont Lady Hornets but something has happened because the Lady Hornets were not much competition for the LadyCats. In an easy-breezy match the Ladycats won 25-4; 25-21; and 25-8. It only took 40 minutes to finish them off and I really appreciated it since I had a lot of work to finish up in my office.
Saturday both teams took to the road and the LadyCats traveled to Harrold to play in the Harrold Booster Club Tournament. The Ladycats kicked off the morning with an easy victory over the Munday Lady Moguls. Our girls don’t usually play too well early in the morning but this one was over before it even began. It was much like the game Friday night against Aspermont. But, things can change very quickly in volleyball and the reigning district champions, Bryson Cowgirls, beat the Ladycats in two straight games. This district preview was a very good learning experience and shows that the Ladycats still have some work to do before district gets started. No doubt that the loss of this match will be remembered by the Ladycats when the Cowgirls come to visit us here at Newcastle gym. The Ladycats ended the day by defeating the ladies from Goldburg High School and being awarded the third place trophy! That makes two volleyball tournaments and two trophies! Not bad for a team that would rather be playing basketball. Congratulations also to Kimberly Bell and Haily Kramer who were named to the all-tournament team.
Thank goodness the weather turned out a little cooler than usual Saturday afternoon for the Bobcats 1:00 pm kickoff against the Benjamin Mustangs in Jayton! I was really worried about the heat and dehydration for the Bobcats but it turned out to be a rather enjoyable afternoon with the Bobcats taking care of business and finishing off the Mustangs early in the third quarter by a score of 58-12.
Sophomore Justin Bohannon carried a big part of the load for the Bobcats offense with 5 touchdowns on 16 carries and 102 yards. Brandon Bailey also contributed 112 yards on only 7 carries as the Bobcats lined up in the spread for a great deal of the afternoon. Taylor Lewis played quarterback for the Bobcats most of the day and was 1 for 3 in the passing category with spreadback, Brandon Bailey, throwing 5 times with 2 completions. Receiving those passes for the Bobcats were Ryan Bohannon, David Brockman, and Wade Spitzer, who caught a 27 yard touchdown pass from Bailey. Taylor Lewis was good on five of his extra point attempts which added a very important 10 points to the scoreboard!
The Bobcat defense did a great job of stopping Benjamin all afternoon and held them to just two first downs. Every time the Mustang offense would get a little momentum one of the Bobcats would intercept a pass to terminate any threat that might have been pending. Dakota Lowe led the defense with 5 tackles and one interception. Casey Terrell and Brandon Bailey each had 3 tackles and one interception for the afternoon. Paul Martinez had 3 tackles and David Brockman, Justin Bohannon, and Ryan Bohannon had two tackles each.
The Bobcats finished the game with 284 total yards of offense versus only 4 total yards of offense for the Mustangs! This was a very effective game for the Bobcat defense. It was a great way to kickoff the 2009 football season. This week it’s on to Woodson for a game with an old district rival who will give the Bobcats a very tough test. Who can forget last year’s game against the Cowboys when the Bobcats had a 20 point lead at half and ended up losing the game at the very end. It’s time for the Bobcats to take care of some unfinished business. The game starts at 7:30 and will be in Woodson.
The Ladycats’ schedule this week includes a Tuesday trip to Chico and then a return trip to Jacksboro on Thursday and Saturday for the Jacksboro Tournament.
