Hatch hangs on to win
Published 12:59 am Saturday, September 10, 2011
By Fred Guarino
The Selma Times-Journal
After an hour delay in the arrival of officials due to a change in the location of the game from Hayneville to Uniontown, the R. C. Hatch Bobcats slammed the Central High School Lions 48-6 Friday night.
The Bobcats stuck first on a 40-yard run at the 1:14 mark of the first quarter.
At the 10:16 mark of the second quarter they scored again on a 15-yard pass play and added the point after for a 13-0 lead.
And at the 4:05 mark of the second quarter the Bobcats bumped the score up for 20-0 halftime lead with a 2-yard push into the end zone.
“I think they came out with a different attitude tonight,” said R.C. Hatch head football coach Jammie Abraham of his team’s performance. “They were hungry for this win, even when the referees were late showing up. They stayed poised … they stayed focused. That’s something I hadn’t seen in them all season.”
The Bobcats continued the onslaught against their 2A regional opponents on a fourth down and forever 45-yard pass play at the 5:05 mark of the third quarter. That made it 26-0.
Central, which hung tough for most of the first quarter of the game struck pay dirt finally at the 4:46 mark of the third quarter on a 67-yard pass play to make it a 26-6 ballgame.
But just when it looked as if Central might claw its way back into the contest, the Bobcats replied with 2-yard plunge into the end zone for yet another score. This time they added a 2-point conversion to make it 34-6 with 2:17 left in the third quarter.
Another pass play from the Bobcats made it 40-6 at the 11:54 mark of the fourth quarter.
The final score came on an 8-yard touchdown play and 2-point conversion to make it a 48-6 final.
“They’re a young group, I mean really young,” said Abraham of his squad. “We only have about 11 returning players from last year total.”
He said proudly, “If we keep playing like we played tonight… The offense keeps moving the ball like we did tonight. I think we’re going to make some noise in this region.”
Abraham said his receiving corps played better than they did all season. He said he took his hat off to Central for stopping the running game. He said his intention was to improve the running game, “But they made us throw the ball. I mean they made a major improvement since last year. So my hat is off to them for that,” he said.