RHS (1-3) and opponent Academy (2-2) came into Friday with the same exact thing on the line. Whichever team left Tiger Stadium victorious would earn District 10-3A-I’s fourth and final playoff spot.
Both teams still have one game to play—the Bees have to face top-ranked Franklin, who recently beat runner-up Cameron, 63-7, in their final game, while Rockdale has winless McGregor this coming week.
A s post-season hopes for both schools were at stake, the evening turned out to be anything but boring.
This was particularly the case in the game’s final minute. With the Tigers trailing 34-27, RHS junior quarterback Blaydn Barcak fought off a strong Bumblebee defense just in time to find freshman De’Andre Stephens open inside the fiveyard line, converting what was a fourth down.
On the next play, Barcak’s pass was intercepted by Academy’s Luke Tomasek with 26 seconds left in the game. With AHS running out the clock, Rockdale’s playoff hopes had vanished and it was the Bumblebees who would buzz their way into the post-season.
Following the heart-breaking loss, Blueand- Gold head coach Jacob Campsey expressed how proud he was of his team’s effort.
“The kids played their tails off,” Campsey said. “They did everything (they could). This was two good football teams play ing against each other. “We’re probably going to look back at (our) penalties, but man, if that game would’ve continued with more time on the clock, it would’ve been score-for-score all night long,” he said. “That’s a tough one because you don’t feel like there’s a loser, you just ran out of time. Kudos to Academy, hats off to them.”
Penalties did play a big part throughout the evening, as RHS got pegged seven different times for what added up to 65 yards.
THIS WEEK— Coming up, the Tigers will head north to face McGregor in their season farewell.
Besides their Sept. 30 match-up with sixth place Troy, the winless Bulldogs have lost all of their district games by at least three touchdowns.
MHS is a team that runs the ball most of the time, led by Sebastian Torres. The sophomore running back has 1,254 yards on 155 carries in nine games and has accounted for approximately 74.8% of the team’s rushing yards this season.
For Campsey, the game with McGregor is unique because he’s never gone into the final week of a season where the playoffs aren’t on the horizon.
“I have to figure out an approach,” Campsey said. “Because I’ve never been in this situation.”
WEATHER— Due to an anticipated combination of heavy rainfall and cold weather on Friday evening in many parts of the state, a number of teams have moved their games to Thursday.
Although Rockdale is interested in moving their game to another day this week, their contest with McGregor is still scheduled for Friday as of press time Tuesday evening.
GAME— Similar to the game’s last minute, the first 60 seconds of the game’s opening quarter started off explosively as well.
After beginning with the ball on their own 23-yard line, Academy’s Kasey Mraz and Scout Brazeal connected for a 48-yard pass on the first play of the game, getting the ball to the Rockdale 29. Two plays later, Mraz and Brazeal linked up again for a 29-yard TD pass. Even though the Bumblebees missed the extra point, they led 6-0 less than a minute into the game.
RHS fired back four minutes later when Gerren Marrero caught a 22-yard pass from Blaydn Barcak. Daniel Romero’s successful point-after-touchdown put the Tigers up, 7-6.
RHS increased their lead in the second when Barcak found an open Robert Owens near the 12-yard line. The Tiger scored after running another 12 yards to the end zone, putting his team up 14-6 at the 10:48 mark. Academy cut that lead with 5:15 left in the first when Mraz scored on a fiveyard run to make it 14-13. Similar to the first and final minute of the game, the last minute of the half was eventful as well. First, Marrero caught another touchdown pass from Barcak with 1:08 left on the clock. Then, with 2 4 seconds left, Mraz scrambled around, eventually finding Alex Lawton wide open for a 43-yard TD pass. Due to Academy failing to convert the extra point, Rockdale led 21-19 at halftime.
Neither scored in the third quarter, but Academy took the lead at the 10:22 mark on one-yard run by Mraz. The Blue-and-Gold jumped back ahead less than a minute later when Marrero caught his third touchdown pass of the night on a 17-yard fling from Barcak. This put Rockdale ahead, 27-26.
That advantage was taken away at the 7:15 mark when Mraz broke multiple tackles to score on a 52-yard run. After Mraz found Tomasek open in the right side of the end zone for an extra two points, AHS led 34-27, which was ultimately the final score of the game.
STATS— Barcak had his highest completion rate of this season, connecting with receivers for 16 of his 21 attempted passes. The Tiger junior also racked up 208 yards and four touchdowns. Marrero led the team in receiving yards with 98 on five passes.
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