Bobcats score 28, but turnovers boost Eagles

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“You know, we had four turnovers,” Berryville coach Bryan Hutson said, “and a touchdown called back that was a big play, so it’s tough to win when you’ve got four turnovers and a touchdown called back. Not to mention three, maybe four, pass inter- ferenceBerryvillepenalties.” (1-7, 0-5 4A-

1) led twice in the first quarter and was within six points early in the third, but couldn’t get any closer as Huntsville held on for the win. The Bobcats’ offense was successful early, as Nick Utt’s short touchdown ran capped the game’s first pos- session and put Berryville up 7-0 with 10:23 left in the first quarter.

After Huntsville answered with a touchdown to tie the score, Berryville faced fourth-and-2 from its own 47. Quarterback Decimus Ruiz passed to Chet Hud- gens for what would have been a 53-yard touchdown, but a penalty moved the ball back to the Huntsville 34 and the Bobcats eventually were forced to punt. After the punt, the Bob- cats held Huntsville on three plays and forced the Eagles to kick the ball back to Ber- ryville from their own end zone. Ethan Williams re- turned the punt 16 yards to the Huntsville 16 and Tun Oo scored from there. Nay Blut’s extra point put Ber- ryville up 14-7 with 3:47 all the difference as Ber- ryville turned the ball over on three consecutive posses- sions. Huntsville turned two of the takeaways into touch- downs and added a third score as well to take a 34-14 lead with 43 seconds left in the first half. The Bobcats took ad- vantage of the remaining time, however, as Oo broke free for a 42-yard run to the Huntsville 14 and Ruiz threw to Williams for a touchdown. Blut’s extra point got Ber- ryville within 34-21 at half- time. The Bobcats pulled even closer lead to 34-28 with 9:40 left in the third however,Huntsvillequarter.responded, scoring a touch- down and two-point conver- sion to make it 42-28 with 7:15 left in the quarter and then tacking on another TD at the end of the quarter.

Oo finished with 230 yards rushing for the Bob- cats, whose 28-point output was their most this season except for a 62-0 victory over winless Decatur, which has scored a total of six points in eight games.

“We had 320-something yards rushing of turnovers were intercep- tions where guys were there. We’ve just got to execute. We can’t do that. But I also looked out there one time in the second half when it was a six-point ballgame and we’ve got six sophomores out there on defense. We’ve got six sophomores on of- fense. We’ve got a bunch of young guys.”

Berryville will travel to Lincoln on Friday. The Wolves (4-4, 2-3) have lost three of their last four games, including a 56-21 loss last Friday at Gentry. But Lin- coln has averaged more than 35 points a game this season, and Hutson said the Wolves are dangerous offensively.

“They sling it every- where,” Hutson said. “We’ve faced a bunch of experi- enced quarterbacks that can throw it. And they’ve got an experienced ballclub and a quarterback that can throw it around a lot. So another team like that to try to face with a bunch of young kids.”