Despite five fumbles plus several bad snaps, muffed kicks and 378 yards of offense by the Cadets, the Yoemen held on for a 41-37 victory at Yoe Field on Friday night in both teams’ season opener.
“We felt good coming in,” Yoe coach Mike Mullins said. “We felt we could match up with them in some areas.”
But Mullins wasn’t expecting such a shootout with the Cadets, whose offensive gameplan involved two things: 1) Give the ball to running back Reggie Richardson, who racked up 146 yards on 18 carries; and 2) Dominate through the air, as the passing game led by quarterback Michael Thompson completed 13 of 18 attempts for 211 yards.
But strangely, despite outplaying the Yoemen in the first half, the Cadets never were able to break the game open. The Yoemen matched them score for score, thanks to the Cadets’ losing three of their four fumbles.
The first fumble put the first points on the board for the Yoemen. Richardson took a handoff up the middle, but as he was popped by Yoe linebackers the ball flew out of his hands and into those of DD Cooke, who caught it on the run and returned it 46 yards for the score, tying the game at 7.
That was a slight redemption for the Yoemen, who fumbled the opening kickoff, giving the Cadets short field for a 30-yard touchdown pass from Thompson to Jerry Johnson.
Things started to go the Yoemen’s way after the same thing happened on the opening kick of the second half. Yoe wasted no time to take advantage. Damyon Kelley took a handoff up the middle, hit a wall, bounced to his right and ran 35 yards for the score, cutting the lead to 34-28.
“I thought we were going to have to match them score for score,” Mullins said. “But it was really a tale of two halves. The kids were fired up and dropped the opening kickoff and that busted our balloon for a few minutes. But then we got the break they did to start the second half.”
Then the Yoe defense forced the first Connally punt of the night, and the momentum was surely on the Yoemen’s side. The Yoemen finally ate up some clock with a 14-play, 77-yard drive, capped with a 12-yard TD run by quarterback Steven Townsend. Matt Chandler’s extra point gave Yoe it’s first lead of the game with 2:14 left in the third.
“I knew if we got close to them I thought we could push them around,” Mullins said. “We just had to control the ball the second half.”
And that meant going to a little old school formation for the Yoemen. Mullins, who has run mostly a spread-shotgun formation the last few seasons, ran consecutive plays in an I-formation to try to get some power yards and wear down the defense.
“I’ve been in the I before,” Mullins said, laughing. “I’m not saying I’ll be back in it next week, but it was a little changeup. We’ll see what happens.”
But it was a pass on the next drive from Townsend to junior classmate Brandon Freeman that helped the Yoemen grab the win. Townsend rolled left, found Freeman cutting to the sideline and fired a shot a little high. Freeman leaped forward, found the ball with his right hand and reeled it in as he was pushed out of bounds for a 26-yard catch on third-and-long that put the Yoemen at the 20.
Four plays later, Kelley scored from 2 yards out to retake the lead for good with 4:37 left.
“We just didn’t want to lose this first game,” Townsend said. “No one believed in us, so we had to come out and show them we could win.”
mhood@temple-telegram.com
