October 22, 2016 – The Timpson Bears varsity football team dropped Friday’s District 11 2A-2 game with the visiting Overton Mustangs by a 31-21 score. Overton never trailed but had to stave off two Bears comeback attempts.
Overton deferred the opening possession and kicked the ball to the Bears after winning the coin toss. Timpson started their first possession at their own 35 yard line. Jordan Osby gained Timpson’s initial first down with a 13-yard run which took the ball down near midfield. A 9-yard sack by Overton’s Darius Herndon set Timpson back into a second-down-and 19 yards to go situation and ultimately forced the Bears into punting the ball to the Mustangs. After a 41-yard Joe Clark punt return, OHS used just three plays to score the game’s first touchdown. Jacob Marshall capped the drive with an 8-yard keeper for the score. The Mustang’s extra point kick was good and the Mustangs led 7-0 with 8:01 left in the first period.
Timpson’s Jordan Osby returned the Overton kickoff 40 yards to set the Bears offense up at the Overton 48 yard line to start the Bears’ second drive. On second down Osby raced 48 yards for the Bears first score. Timpson’s extra point kick attempt missed and THS trailed 6-7 with 6:57 left in the first quarter.
The Bears defense stopped OHS on their next offensive drive, but with ten minutes remaining in the second quarter, Overton got their second touchdown, on a 14-yard run by fullback Hudson Rogers, and the Mustangs took a 13-6 lead. With just 32 seconds left in the first half, Marshall found Nicolas Croteau in the corner of the end zone on a swing pass and OHS took a 19-6 lead into to locker room at halftime.
Less than two minutes into the second half, Overton took a 25-6 lead on a three play, 55-yard scoring drive, capped with a 4-yard quarterback keeper run by Marshall with 10:03 remaining in the third stanza.
Timpson answered back with a nine play scoring drive of their own which was capped with a 3-yard Osby touchdown run for the score with 5:17 left in the third frame. This pulled THS to within 13-25 of Overton.
Overton extended their lead to 31-13 with another Croteau touchdown reception with 5:09 left in the game.
Timpson again fought back to pull to within 21-31 after Osby covered 71 yards in two plays, and scored on a 42-yard break-away run for a touchdown, and ran in a 2-point conversion, with 4:48 left to play. This proved to be the game’s final score.
Overton rushed for 284 yards and Timpson ran for 237. The Mustangs completed 9 passes on 13 attempts for 88 yards. Timpson completed 1 pass on 4 attempts for 16 yards. Timpson lost a fumble with 4:35 remaining in the first period and threw an interception at the end of the first half. OHS had no turnovers. Timpson held the advantage in penalty yardage with 0 yards assessed on one declined penaly, Overton was penalized for 40 yards on 4 miscues. The Mustangs had 372 total yards of offense, while the Bears totaled 253.
The Bears will next host the Mount Enterprise Wildacats at Timpson’s John Hebert Eakin Stadium, next Friday, October 28 at 7 p.m. The Wildcats are 1-7 and lost to Wortham 47-14 last Friday at home. MEHS is 0-3 in District 11 2A competition.
