The challenger: the CenTex Barracudas - a young team with the skills and talent but lacking one final ingredient to be considered a serious contender.
The result: The Roughnecks recorded a 52-42 win over the Barracudas on Saturday night at Bell County Expo Center to improve to 2-2, while CenTex fell to 1-4 as its season-opening five-game homestand concluded.
The result left first-year coach Stan Petry convinced he needs to find the final ingredients for the Barracudas to be taken serious.
“There will be some changes,” he said. “Lots of changes. We’ll be all right. We just have to start winning.”
The defending Intense Football League champion Roughnecks came out punching hard early but overall didn’t have an easy go against the scrappy Barracudas.
The Roughnecks took a 7-0 lead on their first drive after converting a third-and-long situation for a first down, then scoring on a touchdown pass from 11 yards out.
Then the Roughnecks’ Kaloma Cardwell intercepted a Donald Carrie pass on the first play from scrimmage, and two plays later Odessa had a 13-0 lead with 8:34 left in the opening quarter.
The Roughnecks built the lead to 19-0 before CenTex mounted a charge.
Petry decided it was time to pull Carrie, who had completed two of six passes, in favor of Wayne Johnson, who had not seen action all season.
Johnson’s first pass was a bomb well out of the end zone, but after that he was brilliant, leading the Barracudas’ first scoring drive and rushing in from 8 yards out for a score.
On the night, Johnson completed 14 of 28 passes for 159 yards with three touchdowns and was impressive enough to win the starting job for the Barracudas’ next game.
“If he starts this game, who knows what happens?” Petry said. “He worked his (rear end) off.”
The Barracudas cut the lead to 19-10 right before the half as Kyle Robinson nailed a 35-yard field goal. And it looked from there as though the Barracudas were in perfect position to steal the momentum as they were set to receive the second-half kickoff.
But trouble waited.
Jarrod Robinson’s kick went high but short and Olan Coleman and Ray Hall let it fall in between them, opting to play it on the bounce. It bounced the wrong way and into the hands of Cardwell, who returned it to the 9 for an Odessa first-and-goal.
“That’s a killer right there,” Petry said. “It was like the Keystone Kops out there just trying to field that ball.”
Odessa settled for a 26-yard field goal from Robinson to make it 22-10, then the game got fun.
Coleman had no trouble fielding the next kickoff and found open field ahead, returning it 41-yards for a score to cut it to 22-17.
The Roughnecks took on an anything-you-can-do-we-can-do-better attitude, as Maurice Avery returned the CenTex kickoff 52 yards for a touchdown.
It looked like a pattern was about to form as Coleman took the next kick 45 yards for another apparent touchdown, but a holding call nullified the score and CenTex instead began at its 22.
No problem. On second down, Johnson scrambled and found running back Hall, who scampered in for a 28-yard score to cut the lead to 29-24 with 9:31 left in the third.
Odessa answered again to go up 11, but CenTex had rhythm now. On the first play from scrimmage on the Barracudas’ next drive, Johnson hit Coleman on a post pattern on the left side to cut the lead to 35-32.
Then after the Barracudas had cut the lead to 49-42 with 4:58, the defense finally looked to come up big.
Odessa had a first and goal after a squib kick by CenTex. But three straight incompletions brought out the Roughnecks’ field-goal unit, and Robinson’s 27-yard attempt hit the upright but bounced in for the 10-point lead and the final blow of the bout, with the Barracudas failing to convert a first down on their final drive.
“I really thought our defense played great,” Petry said. “But they can’t do it all. They played hard but we had some mistakes and some bad calls.”
The Barracudas will play their first road game of the season next Saturday at Katy.
“We have to go down there and pick up a win,” Petry added. “At least now we know what we have at quarterback.”
mhood@temple-telegram.com
