In a game with playoff position on the line, the French Camp Panthers waited a quarter to get started.
Sebastopol jumped out to a 21-0 lead and held on to take a 41-21 win over the Panthers on Friday night.
French Camp falls to 4-6 on the season and 4-2 in Region 3-1A play and will travel to Leake County on Thursday night to end the regular season.
It was a frustrating night for Head Coach Nathan Wright and the Panthers.
“My hats off to Sebastopol, they came to play. They wanted the ball, and we were kind of stagnate. We finally settled down and I thought we had turned the corner but never did,” Wright said. “I’m still scratching my head how we can look so bad on defense. It hurts when you have guys playing spots they don’t normally play. I felt like we didn’t show up to play and when Cody (Perry) went out, that didn’t help. The injury bug has been tough on us this year.”
The Bobcats got the ball first and promptly went 50 yards in four plays. After a big 40-yard run from Adarious McDougle, Kari Micheals scored on a 1-yard run with 10:08 left in the first quarter. Cy Mooney hit the PAT and Sebastopol led 7-0.
French Camp turned the ball over on downs on its first possession of the game. Sebastopol then went 70 yards in five plays. After a 40-yard run from David Williams, the junior running back scored on a 7-yard run with 5:04 left in the first quarter. Mooney hit the PAT and Sebastopol led 14-0 midway through the first quarter.
The Bobcats got the ball right back when they recovered an onside kick. Six plays later, McDougle scored on a 19-yard run with 2:17 left in the first quarter. Mooney hit the PAT and Sebastopol led 21-0.
Sebastopol recovered another inside kick but turned the ball over on downs.
French Camp finally got the offense going as they went 67 yards in eight plays. Silas Hodge capped off the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run. Gavin Fox hit the PAT and Sebastopol cut the lead to 21-7.
“Those onsides don’t hurt you bad if you play defense,” Wright said. “It was a frustrating night but there were some bright spots. Defensively, we could just never get it all together. Even with everybody we had lost, we could still move the ball on offense. You just can’t fall behind like that against a good football team.”
After a Sebastopol punt, French Camp put together another scoring drive as they went 49 yards in six plays. Ethan Wright capped off the drive with a 24-yard touchdown pass to Wesley Vowell with 2:35 left in the half. The PAT failed and Sebastopol led 21-13.
But Sebastopol answered back with an eight-play, 77-yard drive. Micheals hit Jacob Williams on a 5-yard touchdown pass as time expired to finish off the drive. Mooney hit the PAT and Sebastopol led 28-13 at the half.
“That was really big scoring before the half,” Wright said. “We were really content to just run the time out. We didn’t want to make a mistake and give them the ball back. So, we ran buck sweep and popped a couple of big runs and got past midfield and then turned it loose and got after them and got in the end zone. We got a big play to end the half when we faced sweep and hit a pass to the tight end. That was huge going into halftime.”
The Panthers lost another onside kick to start the second half, forcing a Sebastopol punt. The Panthers then went 63 yards in eight plays as Perry hit Macon Bentley on a 35-yard touchdown pass with 5:00 left in the third quarter. Ethan Wright ran in the two-point conversion and Sebastopol held a 28-21 lead.
The Bobcats got a break on the next drive as they went 59 yards in nine plays. The Bobcats scored when Micheals fumbled into the end zone and Morgan Harper recovered it for a touchdown. Mooney hit the PAT and Sebastopol led 35-21.
The Panthers had a balanced offensive attack with 130 yards passing and 124 rushing. Ethan Wright was 5-of-9 passing for 79 yards while the junior also rushed for 64 yards on eight carries. Perry was 4-of-9 passing for 51 yards and rushed three times for 13 yards. Silas Hodge had 47 yards rushing on 11 carries. Vowell led the receivers with five catches for 68 yards while Macon Bentley had three catches for 42 yards.
On defense, Landon Rushing had a big night with 10 solo tackles and 10 assists while Hodge had 10 solo tackles and four assists. Wright also had 10 solo tackles and three assists while Vowell had six solo tackles and seven assists. Javon Hood and Gavin Fox each had three solo tackles and two assists while Bentley had three solo tackles and one assist.
This week’s game
The Panthers will hit the road to finish out the regular season this week as they travel to Walnut Grove to take on Leake County Thursday night.
Leake County is 1-8 on the season with their only win coming over Noxapater in a 34-25 win.
If French Camp wins, they will be the No. 3 seed in the playoffs.
“I think the biggest thing for us is we have to get some people back healthy,” Wright said. “I hope we can do that the next two weeks. Leake is very athletic which is a bad matchup for us. We need to go play well early. We don’t want to go down there and inspire them in any way.”
