In what was their most anticipated game of the regular season, the Tigers couldn’t catch a break against the Cameron Yoemen, who went on to win the 67th Battle of the Bell 60-23 on Friday night at Yoe Field.
“I thought t (we) had some opportunities and a couple of dropped passes that could’ve got us into the red zone,” said RHS head coach Jacob Campsey. “But we just didn’t execute.”
“We just didn’t make the plays that were there to be made early and get good field position. I really think we shot ourselves in the foot a ton and got behind,” he said. “That could’ve been a much closer game.”
Unlike their first five games of the season where the Yoemen primarily threw the ball, 278 of their 410 offensive yards total were on the ground.
The Tigers were also without sophomore Chad David, who has been an instrumental part of the Blue-and-Gold defense this season.
Following Friday night’s game, a big priority for Campsey and his team is to move forward. Especially since he implied that losing the Battle of the Bell isn’t indicative of their season.
“We’re 1-1 in district and I’ve been on both sides of this thing,” Campsey said. “And I’ve been on the wrong side whenever those guys end up playing later in the season than we do.”
“If we let this define us, that’s our fault,” he said.
The example that the second-year head coach brought up in his postgame speech was the 2014 BOTB game that Rockdale won but when the two teams met later in the post-season, Cameron won and went on to get their third consecutive state championship.
GAME—Rockdale got on the board first Friday evening when sophomore Daniel Romero made a 31-yard field goal to give the visiting team a 3-0 lead a little more than three minutes into the game.
However, that lead was short lived when Cameron turned a 12-play drive lasting more than four minutes into a seven-yard TD run by Ryan Muniz to make it 7-3.
In the second, the Yoemen built on to their lead with a Muniz pass to Trayjen Wilcox for a 27-yard touchdown with 8:12 left in the half and another Muniz TD pass to Pharrell Hemphill for 28 yards to give Cameron a 20-3 lead at halftime.
Rockdale’s hope of chipping away at Cameron’s lead was short lived.
Although the Tigers were able to answer back to an early third quarter touchdown by the Yoe with a Blaydn Barcak to Kobe Mitchell connection for 59 yards to make it 26-10 halfway through the third, Cameron scored three times in a span of two minutes and eight seconds to make the ball game 46-10.
The Blue-and-Gold scored twice in the final quarter on a four-yard pass from Mitchell to Davioun Scott and a 29-yard pass from Barcak to Robert Owens, Cameron also scored two more times, taking the Bell for the
45th time. Top performers rs for the Tigers were Barcak, who rushed for 88 yards on 16 carries while complets ing 13 of 27 passes for 241 yards. Mitchell was the Big Blue’s top receiver, catching four passes and accumulating a total of 121 yards and one touchdown.
Other RHS receivers with stellar performances were sophomore Gerren Marrero with four catches for 57 yards and Owens, who caught three passes for 40 yards and a touchdown.
CALDWELL—The Tigers will be back home on Friday evening to host Caldwell, who are coming off a bye week after falling to Cameron 70-0 in their district opener on Sept. 24.
Despite the disappointing district opener, the Hornets are an experienced team with quarterback Ryan Roehling, who passed for 1,142 yards during his 2020 campaign.
On defense, they are led by linebacker Laramie Pieper, who led the Hornet defense with 88 tackles last season.
Rockdale’s matchup with the Burleson County squad will be about getting back to what they know. “We just have to go back
“We just have to go back to work just like we did after the Bellville game and put together a good game plan, get the kids to work, a go get it.” Campsey said.
Game time is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at home.
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