Can the Bobcat football team overcome injuries and be able to have a playoff run?

Only time will tell as Beaver Area heads into the home stretch of the regular season.

The Bobcats are currently 3-2 and have a conference record of 1-1.

September 20 was the Bobcats' highly anticipated game against the Central Valley Warriors, and despite a hard fight the Cats walked off the field with a 51-37 loss.

Such a high scoring game on both sides usually points to holes in both teams’ defenses. This was the case for the Bobcats.

On the first drive of the game, senior Brady Mayo tried to stiff arm a CV player and dislocated his elbow. Mayo is expected to be out for the next four games as he heals.

The Warriors quickly scored two touchdowns in the first quarter.

To make matters worse, with roughly five minutes left in the quarter junior Jonah Justice was also injured. The tight end fractured his wrist. His return to the field remains unknown at this time.

Mayo normally plays both offense and defense while Justice is on the starting defense, so these injuries had the coaching staff scrambling.

In lieu of Mayo on offense, senior Qualan Cain was shifted from a running back to a wide receiver position while freshman Avery Scales went in for Cain.

Scales played a good game, but in the end he is a freshman and doesn’t yet have the experience that Cain has as a running back.

Likewise, the defense was shuffled and sophomore Damian Lutton, who normally is on the offensive line, was shifted to play both lines, and a defensive lineman was shifted to a defensive back.

The score right before the half was frightening 21-0 with the Warriors leading.

But the Bobcats must have had an inspiring halftime pep talk, because all 32 of the Bobcats’ points came in the second half.

Shortly after the third quarter start, junior and starting quarterback Travis Clear was pulled out of the game for a suspected broken thumb. In the end, Clear had a strained ligament in his hand but this left another gaping hole in the offense: who’s the quarterback?

The man with the Bobcats’ football team on his shoulders was senior Amari Jackson who went in as quarterback. Jackson is the team’s starting wide receiver and punter.

With so many responsibilities, in the end Jackson often held onto the ball opting to run. He was able to complete a 56 yard run as quarterback for a touchdown in the third quarter, and another 55 yard touchdown run in the fourth.

Additionally, Jackson had a 70 yard run where he was brought down at the three yard line which the Bobcats followed with a score.

For someone who is not primarily a quarterback, Jackson had a 60 percent completion percentage and 45 passing yards.

The Bobcats still had heart in the game and found holes in the Warriors’ defense.

Jackson completed a ten-yard pass to Cain which Cain then ran 35 yards for a touchdown. Cain also had an impressive 80 yard touchdown run off a Jackson pass. Cain had 115 rushing yards in the game.

Junior Micah Pupi also made his mark against the Warriors, with five tackles including one tackle for a loss.

Coming off of a hard week the Bobcats were looking towards their September 27 game against the McGuffey Highlanders.

The McGuffey matchup also was the annual homecoming game as well as the Beaver Area hall-of-fame induction night.

Homecoming weekend started with a bang and a blowout win for the Bobcats with a final score of 49-0.

The Bobcats kicked off to the Highlanders but were able to stop them in a very short 12 yard run.

When Beaver Area received the punt from McGuffey, Jackson returned it over fifty yards into the end zone. Though the touchdown was called back due to a Bobcat penalty, it was of little consequence as senior Drey Hall ran into the end zone.

However, this touchdown too was also called back due to another offensive penalty.

Such mistakes would have been crucial against teams such as Central Valley or Avonworth; they seemed not to matter in this game.

In what seemed like the longest first down play ever, Cain was able to run the ball in for a final touchdown putting six points on the board for the Bobcats early in the first.

From there things kept on rolling.

With interceptions, runs well over 60 yards, and impressive catches the Bobcats boosted the score to 42-0 at half time. With such lopsided play, the junior varsity team slowly replaced the starting players towards the end of the second quarter, and by the end of the third quarter the Bobcats had only junior varsity on the field.

This switchover allowed varsity players to rest and junior varsity to get valuable playing minutes, but the game after the halftime show was slow and more defensive.

Scales scored once more for the Bobcats bringing the final score to 49-0 for a shutout homecoming victory.

The Beaver Area football team will have back-to-back away games against Deer Lakes October 4 and North Catholic October 11.

Check the next BASD ECHO for coverage of these (hopefully more exciting and less injury-prone) games.