Eagles and Cougars battle on Senior Night

By Kevin Phillips

CHESAPEAKE CITY

– Both Bohemia Manor and Fallston struggled to hold on to the football in the teams’ UCBAC Susquehanna Division football battle, combining for nine turnovers on the night.

The Eagles committed six turnovers throughout, and they could not overcome those mistakes en route to a 24-7 defeat at the hands of the visiting Cougars Thursday night.

“We have to rep ball security and preach it in practice. We do preach that stuff. That stuff is going to happen. It’s part of the game,” Bo Manor head coach Vincent Ricci said. “(Fallston) coughed the ball up too, and we fell on it too. It was just one of those nights that who was going to hold on to the ball seemed like was going to win the game. It was one of those games that was really odd with the fumbles.”

The Eagles gained just 64 yards in the first half, and as a result, they entered the second half trailing 3-0 after Cougars kicker Jason Roberts converted a 41yard field goal midway through the first quarter.

As a result of their offensive struggles in the first half, Bo Manor switched to the Wildcat formation on their first possession of the third quarter and promptly worked its way down the field and took the lead on a Jake Koehler three-yard touchdown run, culminating a 10-play, 65-yard drive.

“It was something we decided to do at halftime. The coaches made a really good adjustment, doing that. That got us down the field and got us in the lead,” Ric- ci said. “Unfortunately we gave it right back when we got the bad break on the tipped pass. That happens in football, and that’s the little bit of adversity that we had. When you run the Wildcat like that and once a team sees it, the other coaches obviously would figure it out.”

On the ensuing possession, the Cougars responded with their first touchdown of the game when Aiden Dixon’s pass was deflected high in the air before Brody Fitzekee hauled it in for a 35-yard touchdown.

Fallston put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter when Evan Bradley-Dozier and Evan Alcide had touchdown runs of 23 and 12 yards respectively, and Ricci took responsibility for the Cougars’ final touchdown.

“On the last touchdown,

I called a really dumb blitz. That was on me. I thought they were going to run to the opposite side, and they ran to the weak side. That one is on me,” Ricci said.

Despite giving up 24 points, the Eagles’ defense played well throughout the night, forcing three turnovers and limiting a normally dynamic Fallston offense to just 226 yards, and Ricci said the score was not indicative of how well Bo Manor’s defense played.

“Once again, we showed up. We tackled a really tough quarterback all night. They didn’t get many rushing yards. We caught a really bad break on one of their passes. They stayed together and kept fighting.” Ricci said. “The effort was there. As you said, it was 24-7, but I do believe the kids played a lot harder than that”