Tiger football avenged last season’s loss to Lexington with a 35-14 home win Friday in large part to the duo of quarterback Blaydn Barcak and receiver Robert Owens, who linked up for three of the team’s five touchdowns.
Along with their dominance on offense, the Tiger defense played a big role as well, not allowing a touchdown until the final quarter.
After the game, coach Jacob Campsey talked about what he wanted his team to get out of their third game of season with two weeks before district play begins.
“I wanted to win, and we won first and foremost, but I wanted to make (Lexington) play up to our intensity,”he said. “I felt like we did and we flew around all night.”
The second-year head coach also said that he was pleased with everyone’s progress.
“They just play hard,” he said. “I hate that they gave up a few scores with under four minutes to go, but everyone played and that’s what it’s all about so we got better tonight I think.”
GAME STORY–Despite a fumble on their first series, the Tiger defense helped get the ball back four plays later. Two plays after that, Kobe Mitchell dove into the end zone on a goal line drive to score Rockdale’s first touchdown. Daniel Romero’s extra point kick put them ahead 7-0 less than three minutes into the game.
On Lexington’s second series, the Tigers stopped the Eagles in the red zone, forcing them to turned the ball over on downs at the eight yard line. Rockdale scored right away when Barcak and Owens linked up for the first time when the sophomore quarterback found Owens open halfway down the field for what ended up being a 92-yard touchdown. Romero’s kick made the score 14-0 with more than half of the first quarter left to play.
Owens and Barcak linked up once more in the first half on a 30-yard pass with 11 seconds remaining in the second quarter. Romero’s extra point gave the Milam County team a 21-0 at halftime.
The Tigers scored twice more in the second half. First, only two minutes into the second half, Barcak lateraled to Mitchell who passed the ball 18 yards to Barcak, who was open in the end zone.
Then, after Tiger senior Davioun Scott made an interception, Owens and Barcak reunited for a final time when Barcake found Owens open for a 30-yard touchdown pass. Romero’s kick made it 35-0 with 8:01 left to play in the third quarter.
Lexington scored twice in the final quarter on two different TD passes from Sheldon Springer in the final four minutes, but it wasn’t enough as the Blue-and-Gold prevailed.
STATS–Barcak threw 12 for 18 with 293 yards and three touchdowns. He also caught one touchdown and had 73 rushing yards.
Robert Owens caught five passes for a total of 208 yards, only two of those passes ended without a touchdown.
On the other side of the ball, Cruz San Migel led the Tigers with 18 solo tackles. With a total of 54 tackles in the first three games, San Migel leads Class 3A and has the third most tackles in all UIL classifications.
Other heavy hitters on the night were Davioun Scott with 10 and junior Scott Penny with eight. Isaiah Sauls also had seven and Chris Huff had six solo tackles.
BELLVILLE–Rockdale’s next opponent, Bellville, is the sixth-ranked team in Class 4A-II and is coming off a 48-26 win over Stafford to remain undefeated.
The Spartans also shutout Giddings 49-0 in their opener and posted a 41-26 win over Cameron in week two.
The Brahmas are powered by their Slot-T offense with senior running backs Richard Reese and Robert Briggs, who combined for 297 yards in last Friday’s win over SHS and combined for 418 yards in the week before against Cameron.
Friday night’s action is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m., at Brahma Stadium, which is located next to Bellville Junior High.
ONLINE–The online link for the game is: https://www.meridix.com/event/197730, the link is also posted on the Rockdale Tiger Athletics Facebook page.
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