It was another battle, but the Bridge City Cardinals rallied from a five point deficit to claim a second playoff victory. The Bridge City bested the Bay City Black Cats 39-19 Friday night at Galena Park ISD Stadium.
The win was the seventh in a row for Bridge City (9-2). Bay City (7-5) saw the game slip away from its grasp with the loss of its leaders on both offense and defense in the latter portion of the second quarter.
Quarterback Dylan Davidson suffered a leg injury on a 15-yard run that netted a first down with eight minutes left in the half. He would not return for the Black Cats. Middle linebacker Elijah Ellis threw a punch at one of the Cardinals after Bridge City retook the lead with 1:24 to go in the half and was ejected from the game. Bay City would play the second half without either of them.
The Cardinals who have relied on ground and pound most of the season used big plays to take a five-point lead in the first half. Bridge City had four plays of 40 or more yards three of which either resulted in points or sent up a score.
On the first play of the game the Cardinals’ Max Baker went around left end for 55 yards before being tripped up at the Bay City 5. Two procedure penalties against Bridge City setup a third-and-goal from the 12. Byron Trahan passed to a wide open Seth Martin in the end zone, but Martin bobbled and then dropped the ball. Brogan Brown attempted a 29-yard field goal which was wide left foiling an excellent early scoring opportunity for the Cardinals.
The next big play put points on the board as Cayce Draper busted a run up the middle for 64 yards and six points. Brown added the point after for a 7-0 Bridge City lead with 6:01 left in the first quarter.
Before his injury Davidson got the Black Cats close with some nifty running for 16 yards. He completed a 19-yard pass to La’Darrion Florez and then got the touchdown on a 23-yard screen to Hodari Williams. The kick was blocked by the Cardinals’ Hunter Denton to keep the score 7-6.
The Black Cats took their first lead of the game as backup running back Rodney Mitchell had two good runs of 29 and 14 yards. Davidson then passed 7 yards to Christian Sauceda for the score. Davidson tried to pass for the two-point conversion, but it was incomplete for a 12-7 Bay City lead.
It took one play for Bridge City to jump back in front. Trahan faked a handoff and found Patrick Morris wide open for a pass which covered 56 yards and the touchdown. Brown’s kick made it 14-12 with 9:34 to go in the half.
It was the next drive during which Davidson was hurt. He left the game with 118 yards passing and 22 yards rushing. Bay City called on two backup quarterbacks.
Sophomore Johnathan Ruiz who was wearing a junior varsity jersey and no logo on his helmet actually directed the Black Cats to a go ahead touchdown. Following a fumbled snap on an attempted punt Bay City took over at the Cardinals’ 21. Ruiz completed one pass to Sauceda for a first down at the 11. Three plays later Williams carried the ball over from the 10 for the touchdown. Daniel Cuevas made the kick to make the score 19-14 in favor of Bay City with only 2:27 left in the half. They would not score again.
Once again it was a big play by Draper that got the Cardinals in the red zone. His 42-yard run gave Bridge City a first-and-goal at the three. Two plays later Morris scored to put the Cardinals up for good 21-19. It was on the PAT that Ellis was ejected from the game for unsportsmanlike conduct.
The Bridge City defense forced a fumble and Jackson Tims recovered for the Cardinals at the Black Cats’ 43. With the clock running down the Cards got a first down and two other runs from Max Baker to the 17. He was the second leading rusher for the Cardinals with 91 yards. Brown came on to try a 34-yard field goal. This first try hit the left upright and was no good, but Bay City had called a timeout just before the kick. Getting a second chance Brown nailed it to give Bridge City a 24-19 lead at the half.
The first drive of the second half was more vintage Bridge City offense. Seven plays, 80 yards and a touchdown. The Cardinals did get a big gainer from Morris for 31 yards. Trahan completed only his second pass of the game good for 36 yards to Keagan Landry. Draper scored his second touchdown of the game from 15 yards out. Morris swept left end with Draper blocking for the two-point conversion to put Bridge City up 32-19 with 5:51 to go in the third.
The Cardinals got their second takeaway of the game as Honeycutt intercepted a pass from Will Grumbles the other Black Cat backup quarterback. On the very next play Draper scored the hat trick with his third touchdown of the game from 28 yards out. Draper missed last week’s game because of an injured foot. He showed no signs of it bothering him Friday night. Draper carried the ball 9 times for 168 yards to lead all ball carriers.
The fourth quarter was scoreless. Bridge City got to bring in its second teamers who executed a nice drive to run out the last five and a half minutes on the clock. The Cardinals used ten ball carriers in the game rolling up 340 yards on the ground. Trahan was 2 of 5 passing for 92 yards.
Bridge City advances to play Stafford, who defeated Kilgore Friday 27-21.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
BRIDGE CITY 7 17 15 0- 39
BAY CITY 6 13 0 0- 19
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