Rabbits fall to Gladewater, 22-7, in district tilt

By Tim Emmons
temmons@casscountynow.com

Atlanta knew going into their game with Gladewater last Friday night that it would be a tough draw.
Unfortunately the Rabbits had to battle both the Bears and the referees which undoubtedly made the contest that much tougher.
The obvious was non-existent as Gladewater went on to defeat Atlanta 22-7.
In the first quarter both team’s defenses rose to the occasion.
Atlanta’s first drive ended with an unsuccessful fourth down attempt deep in their own territory, but Gladewater only ran two plays before Dantay Casey stepped in an intercepted the pigskin.
Big hits by Greg Young and company kept the Bears off balance as well.
The first quarter ended with the Rabbs driving across midfield down to the Bear 34-yard line.
The 11-play drive ended with a missed 30-yard field goal with 9:27 left to play in the first half.
The Bears had to punt the ball on their next drive after a three-and-out, and this is where the Twighlight Zone came into play.
The snap goes over the punter’s head and he rushes back to retrieve it with several Rabbs on his heels.
He picks up the ball and tosses it out of bounds from the endzone.
No safety was called on the play. Instead they give Atlanta the ball at the 1-yard line.
At the time it seemed like a great move to trade possibly seven for two, but as QB Layton Henson breaks the goal line with the ball, a Gladewater player strips it out and runs the ball out to the five.
A total of nine points is lost in a matter of seconds and as of that moment the score remains 0-0.
After a couple of punts back-and-forth Atlanta would get on the scoreboard as Henson connected with Trin Taylor for a 13-yard touchdown.
The PAT made it 7-0.
As fate would have it a big run by Gladewater’s QB caught everyone off guard and he ran the ball from their own 29 to the Rabbs’ 11-yard line.
Two plays later the Bears scored and converted the 2-point play to go up 8-7 going into the half.
Atlanta’s defense kept the hits coming in the second half as Andy Samples, Young and Zee Barfoot made their presence known.
The Bears added another score in the third frame to push the score to 15-7, and ended the third quarter with the ball in Atlanta territory after another big run.
Six plays into the final frame and Gladewater was back in the endzone with 9:37 left in the game.
The PAT put the score at 22-7.
Atlanta’s next drive lasted 17 plays and ate up more than five minutes of game clock only to end on a failed fourth down attempt at the Gladewater 20. The Bears ran the clock out on their next drive ending a very strange game to say the least---and I leave it at the least.
Atlanta hosts Gilmer this Friday night with game time set for 7:30 p.m.