BLACKCAT FOOTBALL

Cats bring down Yates 28-7

By Justin Daily
Bay City Tribune
Published September 6, 2008

BAY CITY – Bay City’s defense looked like a new unit tonight in Memorial Stadium as they as they hit Yates for three fumbles and a strip to run away with a 28-7 win.

Head coach Robert Blackmon got the first win of his career by making the right adjustments and fixing the major problems from last week’s 35-7 loss to Dayton.

“The defense cut down mistakes, we kept it simple and it was the defense that made the difference tonight,” Blackmon said.

“We knew from the film the offense could move the ball and we tried to minimize that.”

Yards after contact wasn’t an issue this week and the defense swarmed the ball and gave Yates all kinds of grief. Jonathan Schneider was back at linebacker for the first time this year after a knee injury and opened the night with a defensive touchdown after returning a fumbled punt snap for a touchdown.

The defense followed that with a blocked field goal and recovered another fumble, this time on the Lions five-yard line to set up another score.

Travis Tomek came up with a stripped ball to set the Blackcats up on the 15-yard line and they scored again before the half to lead 21-7.

The offense struggled to get things going and the defense set them up on the five, then the 15 for scores in the first half. Tomek and Company put together a solid drive in the fourth, utilizing Bay City’s multi-faceted rushing attack with LeTevin Wilcox, Cortney Finney, Godwin Wyche, Tarvoris Mack and Tommy Singletary taking carries. An 18-play drive covered 87 yards and ate 10 minutes off the clock. Wilcox finally punched it in from the one-yard line with 4:40 left to play.

If the Blackcats can play that type of defense every night, and give the offense time to come along, Blackmon could be looking at an excellent starting season.

“We came out energetic. We said before the game that we were going to leave here 1-1. We couldn’t get things going last week, but we practiced hard and practiced our butts off,” said linebacker Iris Norris.

“And it was a home game too. We gotta keep the tradition alive.”