First-year quarterback Bart Gloyd ran in for a touchdown from 3 yards out with 5.6 seconds to play to give the CenTex Barracudas a 54-50 season-opening win over the previously unbeaten Frisco Thunder in Saturday night’s Intense Football League game at Dr Pepper StarCenter.
“We worked the guys hard during training camp,” Barracudas firt-year coach Chris Duliban said. “They lost a lot of games in the fourth quarter last year, and that was due to conditioning. So we asked them to buy into what we were doing for two weeks, and we promised them it would pay off. In the end, I think you saw that tonight.”
Indeed the Barracudas, who were 2-12 last season, were well prepared for the final quarter, scoring 27 points after scoring that same amount in the first three quarters combined.
But a few veteran players kept them in the game long enough to shine in the fourth. Third-year player Olan Coleman returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and added a second touchdown return with 32 seconds to play in the half to cut Frisco’s halftime lead to 28-27.
Frisco (3-1) answered Coleman’s first kick return quickly, as Wes Cooper found Richard Morris for a 13-yard touchdown pass, then followed with an 11-yard strike to Guy Fernandez to go up 14-7.
Although the Barracudas didn’t regain the lead until the fourth, Gloyd kept the Barracudas close the entire way with TD passes to Barracuda veterans P.J. Williams (Rockdale/Mary Hardin-Baylor) and Kendrick Wade.
The Barracudas trailed by 10 with about 9 minutes to play when Gloyd hit Wade for a 10-yard touchdown strike, then Kevin Earvine recovered a perfectly executed Kyle Robinson onside kick, giving the Barracudas the ball right back. On the first play, Gloyd hit Coleman on a 29-yard strike to put CenTex up 40-37 with 8:27 to play.
The teams exchanged a series of scores and Frisco had a 50-47 lead with less than one minute to play, but the Barracudas had the ball. Gloyd completed a series of short passes to move the Barracudas inside the 5-yard line, where on second down, after scrambling and failing to find an open receiver, he ran the ball in himself for the game-winning score.
“Bart has so much heart,” Duliban said of Gloyd. “He just knows the game so well. I told him before the game that the team that made less mistakes would win the game, and he did a great job of not making mistakes.”
Gloyd completed 16 of 36 passes for 195 yards with five scores. Cooper was 17-of-26 for 183 yards with five TDs but also threw three interceptions, two by Cameron Yoe graduate and CenTex veteran Roderick Knight.
The Barracudas will play their home opener at 7 p.m. Saturday at Bell Country Expo Center against the San Angelo Stampede-Express.
