The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

Get you tickets early this week because it is Bayou Bowl time again. Bayou Bowl XI will be played at Larry Ward Stadium in Bridge City on Friday. The cross-community rivalry has playoff implication for both teams.

The feisty Orangefield Bobcats are coming to town thinking playoffs. West Orange-Stark is the only team in the district guaranteed a spot. There are a lot of thing going on with the point system. Let’s keep it simple and don’t worry about points, just win the game.

Last week the Cardinals defeated the Hamshire-Fannett Longhorns 56-19. Here are the highlights of that contest:

Bridge City open the game by marching 86 yards, and capped off the drive with a Matt Menard two yard touchdown run. That, along with Devin Bertrand’s extra point, were the only points scored in the first quarter.

The Longhorn first drive was halted by Cameron Dishon’s first of two interceptions. It might just be me, but that was the fastest quarter I’ve seen all year. I looked up at the clock showing a little over six minutes left in the first quarter, and what seemed like a few seconds later it showed 1:02. Nevertheless, the first quarter score ended 7-0.

The second quarter might have been the longest quarter all year for the Longhorns. The Cardinals put up 35 points in the quarter. With only 48 seconds past in the quarter, Menard hit Dishon on a 59 yard TD pass. Bertrand’s point after brought the score to 14-0. The Longhorns’ second drive also ended in an INT. Tyler Roberts took the honors this time, which set up a 60 yard drive capped off with a Menard 25 yard TD run. With Bertrand’s kick, the score was 21-0 with 8:53 left in the half.

After a Longhorn punt the Cards went on a 57 yard drive, highlighted by a 38 yard strike from Menard to his favorite receiver, Dishon. Menard ended the drive with a one yard quarterback sneak, bringing the score to 28-0, after Bertrand’s kick.

Hamshire-Fannett threw their third INT of the game, when Dishon picked it off and returned it for a touchdown. With 4:22 left in the half, after the Bertrand point, the score was 35-0. The Cardinals were not done with scoring nor with the interceptions. On the Longhorns’ next drive, they tossed their fourth INT. Mitchel Hubbard grabbed this one to stop the drive, giving the ball back to the Cardinals on the 24 yard line. The Cardinals marched down the field, and just before the clock expired, Menard hit Roberts with a seven yard TD pass. Bertrand did his job sending the teams to the locker room with Bridge City up 42-0.

It was good to see our band back at halftime. The cheerleaders looked like they put some new stuff in with the eat’em up crew, and how about those Strutters?

The Longhorns finally got on the board in the start of the third quarter. They finished off a 63 yard drive with a 39 yard touchdown run. They missed the point after bringing the score to 42-6.

Bridge City took their opening drive of the third quarter and drove down the field 72 yards. The drive was highlighted with a 27 yard pass to Hubbard from Menard. The drive ended with a three yard TD run by Hunter Clark. Bertrand’s point was a good advance to the Cardinal lead of 49-6.

The Longhorns next drive ended in a punt and that was all for several of the Cardinals’ starters. Daniel Faulk took over the helms at quarterback, and Stetson Woods came in at running back. The Longhorns blocked a Menard punt and returned it for a TD, missing another point after bringing the score to 49-12, with 3:35 left in the third quarter. Faulk started his second drive on the Longhorn 49 yard line. The teams switched ends of the field to start the fourth quarter with the Cardinals on the move.

With 11:01 left in the fourth quarter Faulk put the Cardinals on the board with an 11 yard touchdown run, and after Bertrand’s kick, the score was 56-12. The next three drives ended in punts. Hamshire-Fannett took over on the 44 yard line and scored the final points of the game with a 26 yard pass and an extra point that made our final score 56-19.

Menard was 10-12 in the passing department with 202 yards. Falk was 2-3 with 14 yards passing. Clark led the rushing attack with 17 carries for 100 yards. Menard had 10 carries for 85 yards, Dishon three carries for 53 yards, Faulk three carries for 16 yards, Roberts one carry for 15 yards, Hubbard one carry for 11 yards and Woods five carries for eight yards.

Dishon led all receivers with four catches for 135 yards. Hubbard three catches for 49 yards, Roberts and Jason Broussard had two catches for 12 yards each and Taylor Day had one catch for eight yards.

Bayou Bowl XI is going to be a show, come early if you want a parking spot and hope to see you at the game.