Bucks fall short in district opener

The Breckenridge Buckaroos (2-4, 0-1) battled with the Clyde Bulldogs (5-1, 1-0) in the district opener at Clyde Bulldog Stadium, but ultimately fell just short of a victory as they lost 22-14. 

It was mistakes that hurt the Bucks early on in the game that occurred Friday, Oct. 10. 

After receiving the opening kickoff, the offense drove down the field, led by a 37-yard catch and run for Cameron David. But Jaime Cruz coughed up the ball while trying to work for more yardage on a run, and the Bulldogs recovered the fumble at their own 15-yard line. 

The Bucks’ defense was able to pick up the offense, forcing a turnover on downs as Douglas White recorded the tackle on the ball carrier. But the turnover battle swung back in favor of the Bulldogs as a Joseph Juneau deep pass downfield was tipped in the air and intercepted by Clyde. 

After the interception was returned to the Clyde 40-yard line, the Bulldogs drove down the field, helped out by a personal foul penalty on Breckenridge. Quarterback Devan Wright passed over the middle to Hunter Dematties who came down with the catch in the endzone. The extra point went through the uprights, giving Clyde a 7-0 lead with just over a minute remaining in the first quarter. 

The Bucks took their next drive into the second quarter, but were forced to punt when the drive stalled. The teams traded punts before the Bucks forced a fumble that was recovered by Brenham Walker near midfield. 
Juneau threw a deep pass in the direction of Erik Saucedo, which fell incomplete, but Clyde was called for a pass interference to set the Bucks up.

After the two-minute timeout, Juneau completed a pass to Ryan Waller on the sideline for a first down. On the next play Cruz took the handoff and bounced and spun off defenders en route to the end zone for a 14-yard score. A good point after attempt by Josiah Acosta evened the score at 7-7. 

A tipped interception by Gunnar Pearce on the next Clyde drive gave the offense a chance to take the lead before half. However, the Bucks were unable to move the ball much and turned the ball over on downs. 

The game remained tied at 7-7 when a Hail Mary to the end zone by Wright fell incomplete after it was tipped as the clock expired. 

The Bulldogs had a long drive to open the second half, but the Bucks' defense came up with a big stop to force a punt from the 40-yard line. Halfway through the third quarter, the Bucks got down into the red zone as Juneau completed a deep pass to Waller who took it to the 20-yard line. 

A couple of plays later from the 11-yard line, Juneau found David for a completion at the 1-yard line and the receiver took it into the end zone for the lead. Acosta kicked the extra point to put the Bucks up 14-7 with just over three minutes left in the third quarter. 

Clyde drove down the field, with the Bucks struggling to stop Wright from scrambling for extra yardage. They allowed several long runs and the quarter came to end with Clyde having a first and goal from inside the 5-yard line. 

The first play of the fourth quarter saw Wright run to the left into the end zone for a walk-in touchdown. The Bulldogs went for the lead instead of tying with an extra point. The two-point conversion was good as Wright rolled right and threw back across his body to his left to an open Colton Womack in the end zone. 

The Bucks were unable to answer the go-ahead score, turning the ball over on downs on their next drive. The legs of Wright hurt the defense once again, as he scrambled for several more long runs on the next Clyde drive.

The drive was capped off by a design quarterback run into the end zone and the good extra point put the Bulldogs up 22-14. 
The Bucks couldn’t move the ball much as they had a three-and-out on their next drive. Back on defense, Cooper Wimberly pushed the ball carrier out of bounds on a third down carry to bring up a 4th-and-1 under two minutes to go. 

With a chance to give the ball back to the offense, the Bucks again failed to stop Wright as the quarterback ran to the right and picked up the first down. On the next play, he broke off another long run and slid down inside the five, before a kneel down iced the game. 

Christian Flores made his return from an injury after missing all of the non-district games, as he slowly works into both the offense and defense. As the second running back behind Cruz, Flores ran the ball nine times for 33 yards. Defensively, he recorded a team-leading 14 total tackles (2 TFLs) and was in on a lot of the pass rush pressures on the quarterback.

“It was great to have him. We had to have him tonight,” Head Coach Casey Pearce said of Flores. “We lost four more dudes to a football, ankle, rolled up, banged up. Wanted to get through it. We don’t have him, it looks different…great to see him out here. He’s not as electric as he was a year ago, yet, but all we can do–that’s game one. He’s got four more to play his senior year and he’s not going to back off.”

Given that this is the Bucks’ fourth one-possession game of the season, they are certainly in a better spot than they were a year ago, which Coach Pearce agrees with. 

“They are a better football team than we’ve been in the last two years, but still, nobody is going to feel sorry for you,” Coach Pearce said. “You’ve got to make plays, whenever it matters, and we haven’t done that yet to finish it.”

“Disappointing loss, we had opportunities to do some things with it and we didn’t capitalize. We couldn’t make plays there in space late to finish the drive,” Coach Pearce said. “Frustrating both offensively and defensively.”

Next up, the Bucks are back home Friday, Oct. 17 to host Jim Ned, before traveling to both Comanche and Sweetwater, then finishing up the season at home against SATLCA.