Rosewood-Hobbton

By Gabe Whisnant
Published in Sports on September 4, 2005 2:16 AM

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NEWTON GROVE -- Hobbton quarterback Ross Thornton passed for five touchdowns Friday night as the Wildcats defeated Rosewood 47-29.

The Wildcats' offense put on an offensive fireworks show in the first half, taking a 39-19 halftime lead.

Hobbton scored on the first play of the game as Thornton hit running back Derrick McDougal on a 46 yard pass play. McDougal caught the pass at the 30 and raced in for the score. After a Rosewood punt, Hobbton started again on the Rosewood side of the field. The Wildcats scored on the fourth play of the drive when Thornton hooked up with D.J. Jackson on a 17 yard pass play.

Rosewood scored its first touchdown with 4:53 left in the opening quarter as quarterback Brantley Ellis threw a 53-yard strike to Josh Myers.

Hobbton, however, bounced right back less than two minuted later as Thornton threw his third touchdown pass of the opening quarter -- a 26 yard pass to Ty Teachey.

Veteran Rosewood coach Daniel Barrow seemed pleased his team played hard and battled back all night long. "Most teams would have folded their tent and went home."

With just 34 seconds left in the first quarter, Rosewood's Josh Myers galloped 49 yards to cut the Hobbton lead to 20-12.

With less than a minute elapsed in the second quarter, Thornton found McDougal again for a 28-yard TD to put the Wildcats back up by touchdowns.

According to Barrow; "the longer we played the better we got. We expected Hobbton to establish the run more before they passed. So early in the season you never know what to expect."

Just seconds later, Rosewood's Devon Bennett returned the kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown. The Wildcats answered five minutes later as Teachey took off on a 70-yard touchdown run.

With just more than four minutes left in the first half, the Wildcats tallied again. Wildcat back Derrick McDougal took a pitch, fumbled in his own backfield, picked the ball up and ran 46 yards and Hobbton was ahead 39-19 at the break.

Both defenses stiffened in the second half as the two teams combined to score just 17 points after rolling up a total of 58 points in the first two quarters.

"We held Hobbton to eight points in the second half," Barrow said. "Our defense played well."

The Eagles came out fired up in the second half and scored on another Ellis-to-Myers 50 yard pass.

Not to be outdone, Thornton threw another 50-yard TD pass to C.J. Oates for Hobbton's only touchdown in the second half. The Hobbton quarterback completed 5 passes, all for touchdowns. The Eagles Brantley Ellis also had a big night with two TD passes.

In the fourth quarter, the Eagles' Markas Brunson blocked a Hobbton punt and the ball rolled through the end zone for a safety.

Both teams seemed weary as the final seconds ticked off. The game included 11 touchdowns, 771 total offensive yards, and 8 touchdowns of 40 or more yards.

For Rosewood, Myers finished with 112 yards rushing on 15 hauls. Ellis was 5-of-11 passing for 168 yards and a pair of TDs.

"Offensive coordinator Jeff Byrd had a great offensive game plan," Hobbton coach Al Britt said.

"We played better as a team tonight. Last week we got our heads down in the second quarter and could not get back up."

Britt was also impressed with Rosewood

"Daniel does a great job coaching those kids," he said. "They played hard and they did not quit."

Rosewood travels to Roanoke Rapids next Friday night for the second of a three-game road trip.