Bowling Green is going to St. Louis. The goal is to go two weeks in a row.
Saturday afternoon beneath a grey and cloudy sky, the Bowling Green Bobcats took on the Mexico Bulldogs at home in the quarterfinals of the State playoffs. Despite making numerous mistakes, Bowling Green was able to play well enough to win 34-7 and stay undefeated in 2009. With the win, Bowling Green advances to the final four where they will take on Priory High School.
“Hopefully we go two weeks in a row,” Bowling Green head coach Jimmy Tucker said.
Mexico (6-7) won the coin toss, but elected to put the ball in the hands of the Bobcats potent offense. The decision initially looked to be a poor one as Bowling Green (13-0) marched down the field and into Mexico territory. But Bowling Green coughed up the ball at the Bulldogs’ 37-yard line allowing Mexico to take over.
Then the Bobcats defense went to work. Stuffing the run and allowing no room to pass, the Bobcats forced Mexico to punt after a three-and-out.
Mexico spent more time moving backwards than forwards for most of the first half. The Bobcats’ defense barely gave Mexico any room to do anything. On the Bulldogs first four possessions of the game, Mexico failed to register a first down. It wasn’t until 5:18 left in the opening half that the Bulldogs moved the chains, and that was the result of a Bobcat penalty.
In the second half, the Mexico offense started to get things going. Eschewing the running game that wasn’t working, the Bulldogs passed their way to a touchdown on its first drive of the half to cut the score to 14-7. That was all Mexico would do.
“Defense was huge — that’s the backbone of our team,” Tucker said. “Our offense is explosive, but, I tell the kids all the time, in the playoffs you have to be able to run the ball and play defense and that’s what we did.”
With the Bobcats defense shutting down Mexico, the Bowling Green offense didn’t have to do much work. In the first quarter, Huntley Leverenz plowed into the end zone from one-yard out with 4:18 left in the quarter to cap off a long scoring drive.
Quarterback Ryan Cox helped extend the lead to 14-0 with a 26-yard touchdown pass to Matt Brown. Mexico was having success stopping the Bobcats running attack, but had no such luck shutting down the aerial assault.
