Two big plays were all that separated Little Cypress-Mauriceville and Jasper in the first half. Three more big plays in the third quarter sealed the victory for the visiting Jasper Bulldogs as they shutout the LC-M Bears 35-0 Friday night at Battlin’ Bear Stadium.
The game was not originally on the schedule, but was arranged to be played between coaches Randy Crouch of LC-M and Darrell Barbay of Jasper to give each team a final non-district game before their separate districts begin play next week. The Bears will start district at 0-3, while the Bulldogs are undefeated at 4-0 and also had a game they were leading against Silsbee that was called before time expired.
The Bulldogs got over one hundred-yard performances from both of their outstanding running backs. Andre Thomas made two long runs of 34 and 32 yards for touchdowns, one in each quarter, of the first half. Thomas had 93 yards by halftime and finished the night with 148 on just eight carries.
Although he did not start the game, Jasper’s other stellar back Carl Limbrick made his presence known when he did get into the game. Limbrick had the most carries with 17 and finished the night with the most yards rushing totaling 173.
Limbrick had a touchdown run of 8 yards after Thomas added a final 55-yard run to his total deep into Bear territory. Limbrick went over the 100-yard barrier with a scintillating 92-yard dash where he outran at least three Bears who appeared to have the angle on him.
The final Jasper score came on a pass from Trashawn Adams to Micah Pickering that covered 82 yards. Adams was an effective passer for the Bulldogs completing 7 of 11 for 109 yards. He did throw one interception to the Bears’ Carson Peet, the Bulldogs’ lone turnover.
The Bears moved the ball well on three occasions, but could never crack the Jasper end zone. Their only good drive in the first half just missed getting six points when quarterback Ashton Landry overthrew a wide open Da’Marion Morris in the end zone on a fourth down from the 25 of Jasper.
Twice in the second half Little Cypress-Mauriceville drove deep into the Bulldogs’ end of the field. Their first possession of the third quarter, the Bears drove to a first-and-goal at the ten. Two runs and two incompletions turned the ball over on downs without netting another yard.
Two possessions later LC-M picked up two first downs on passes from Landry to Brendon Pollock. Andy McDow earned another first down on a 15-yard run to the Jasper 29.
On the next play Landry threw long to the end zone where receiver Keaton Rives made a nifty cutback move in front of his defender and appeared to make a sensational catch for a touchdown, but the ball came loose and the pass was incomplete. The Bears went for it on fourth-and four, but McDow only got two yards.
Jasper took over on downs at its 21. Then using six different backup running backs the Bulldogs literally ran off the remaining 11:19 to close out the game.
Pollock was the Bears’ leading receiver with 8 catches for 75 yards. McDow carried the ball 11 times for 36 yards. Landry was 12 of 24 passing for 101 yards, but was picked off twice by Thomas.
Little Cypress-Mauriceville will open the district schedule next Friday at home against the Huffman Hargrave Falcons. Jasper travels to Rusk next week to begin its district.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
Jasper 7 7 21 0- 35
LCM 0 0 0 0- 0
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