CORPUS CHRISTI — For one’s magical season to continue, another team’s sensational season must come to an end. Unfortunately, this time it was Rio Hondo’s turn to feel something it had not felt since Sept. 8: The agony of defeat.
The dazzling Tyler Bush to the Erik Pizarro performances that had become a staple of the Bobcats’ offense gave their fans one more show on Friday. However, it wasn’t enough as Rio Hondo came up on the wrong side of a heartbreaking 71-44 loss to Navarro in a Class 4A Division II area-round playoff game at Wildcat Stadium in Calallen.
“We faced a really good football team that was good offensively and we knew it,” said Rio Hondo head coach Rocky James. “We knew coming in that their offense was unstoppable. We were able to put 44 points (on the board) like we’ve been doing all year, but they were just too good offensively and just really did a great job causing turnovers, and all of those fumbles turned to points and it’s really tough to play from behind against these guys.”
Over the course of the season, the Bobcats proved they could come from behind and rally for victories. Against Brownsville St. Joseph earlier this year, the Bobcats rallied from a 27-point deficit to win 52-48. Against Orange Grove, Rio Hondo erased a 14-0 deficit to win 55-41. But against a top-ranked offense like Navarro’s, it almost seemed like an impossible task.
Down 8-0 to start the game, Rio Hondo saw a long distance touchdown from Bush to Pizarro called back to the Panthers’ 15 for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. The Bobcats scored a few plays later, however the flag was an indicator of bad things to come.
Every time the Bobcats brought the score to within one point, Navarro’s offense would march right back and score another TD at will.
“Offensively I thought we played very well, but defensively we didn’t play well at all, but hats off to them because they are a very good offensive team and they make you look silly at times,” said James. “They had some big holes to run through and their running backs were small but they ran really hard.
“We didn’t play as well as I’d like to, but they are also a very good offensive team.”
At times the biggest opponent the Bobcats’ offense had wasn’t a defense at all, it was costly turnovers that gave the Panthers easy touchdown opportunities that put the game out of reach for the Bobcats.
The Bobcats were outscored 15-7 in the first quarter, 35-21 in the second, 7-0 in the third before the wining the last quarter 16-14.
With the loss, Rio Hondo finished the season at 9-2 with the District 16-4A DII title under its belts.
