(Tucson, AZ) Bill McCulloch – 520 Sports Talk
A displaced Tucson High Badger team traveled to Rincon High’s field for a home game against juggernaut Cienega High Bobcats.
Tucson High is forced to play its home games away from their stadium due to damage caused by the heavy July monsoon rains that flooded their field and destroyed their turf.
The contest sputtered in the opening quarter as Bobcat quarterback Jamari Joiner was uncharacteristically intercepted twice on what he termed as “bad reads,” but the Badgers could only capitalize once and settled for a field goal.
Each team had limited success until the middle of the second quarter, although the Badgers had a kickoff return for a touchdown called back on a holding penalty. Then Cienega gave Tucson a glimpse of things to come while scoring a late touchdown in the second quarter and went into halftime with a 14-3 lead.
Coach Pat Nugent, one of the premier coaches in the State is a master of halftime adjustments. He and his staff wanted to keep their 4-0 streak alive, but not look past a tough Badger team with some real weapons before the Salpointe Lancers come knocking next week in Vail.
At the start of the third quarter and for the rest of the game, the Bobcats turned on the jets and almost scored at will with such exceptional athletes on the outside like Terrell Hayward catching pass after pass from Joiner. Rodney Rogers lit up the Tucson defense with some great runs to the open field.
With the second string defense in for the Bobcats, Tucson got a couple of late touchdowns on consecutive drives in the waining minutes to make the final score 51-17.
In the post game interview, Coach Nugent emphasized that “speed kills at this level,” and Cienega has plenty to burn. The 5A Cats continue to roll as they improve their undefeated season to 5-0 with a huge game back home in Vail next Friday against a very tough and also undefeated Lancer team.
The Bobcat Football Team will be our guests on our Show at Zona 78 on October 10th at 7 pm. This will be a real treat, so come on out and support Cienega and have some outstanding Italian food while we discuss the season and the State Playoff games to come.
