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Bobcats Bow Out: Henderson eliminates Celina 64-35
BY Townsend Keller, Special to the Record
MESQUITE – The regional round of the playoffs would prove to be the end of the road for Celina (10-3) as Henderson (10-4) put on a dominating ground performance in the second half to eliminate the Bobcats out of the playoffs with a 64-35 victory in Mesquite’s Hanby Stadium.
“Any time you end up with a winning record you’ve had a successful year I guess,” said Bill Elliott, Celina head coach. “You never like to have any losses; you’d like to win that state championship. That’s always your goal so I guess it’s a failure if you don’t reach that goal. But there are a lot of teams in the state of Texas who didn’t get near as close as we did, didn’t accomplish near what we did as a team.”
The night began in usual fashion for the Bobcats. After holding the Lions to a 26-yard William Mann field goal, sophomore quarterback Nathan Elliott gave the Bobcats their first lead of the night with a 29-yard jaunt to the end zone.
“Their linemen were pretty excellent at the reach,” said Forrest Keller, senior defensive tackle. “They just had speed we couldn’t keep up with on the outside.”
After trading rapid-fire scores in the first quarter, the two defenses finally seemed to figure out each other’s ground game and the only score of the second quarter was a 3-yard scoring run by sophomore halfback Cash Conder. Celina would fail to convert a two-point try.
“First half we were able to control them and keep them under wraps, got several stops the first half,” coach Elliott said. “Second half I think just their size and strength just started to wear down on us.”
The second half would indeed belong to Brown and halfback Diamante Wright. Brown put the hammer on the Bobcats early in the second half, rushing for a 16-yard and 34-yard touchdown on consecutive drives.
Celina’s Davis then punctuated the his team's scoring with another long-distance shot, this time outrunning the Lions for a 72-yard score on the way to a 173-yard, two-touchdown performance.
He was then outshined by Wright, who closed the book on the Bobcats by scoring three rushing touchdowns of 44, 8, and 9 yards on consecutive Henderson drives. The senior gashed Celina for 291 yards on 31 attempts on the way to his three scores.
“Those two guys are phenomenal athletes,” coach Elliott said of Brown and Wright. “[Wright] is such a big physical strong kid. We compared him all week to Emmitt Smith to our kids trying to prepare them for him, but I don’t think they really realized the size and strength that he had.”
A 25-yard scoring pass from Elliott to senior receiver Ben Thiel gave Celina the smallest glimmers of hope facing a 35-50 deficit. Elliott ended his night 14-of-24 for 176 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. Thiel had four catches for 84 yards and a score to lead all receiving.
But a 1-yard Brown scoring run, his fifth of the night, and 86-yard pick six by Lion linebacker Kenny McCown ensured that Celina would not advance to face Gilmer in the quarterfinals.
The Bobcats graduate 32 seniors while losing six offensive starters, four of them on the offensive line. The defense will graduate eight starters including most of the front seven.
“It’s one of the biggest senior classes we’ve had since I’ve been here,” coach Elliott said. “They’re a great group of young men. They’ve worked really hard, done everything we asked them to do. I know it hurts them tremendously today, you hate this when you lose the last game. They’ve got nothing to be ashamed of, they’re a great group of men.”
The Bobcats end the year 10-3 under Bill Elliott in his first year after taking over for long-time head coach Butch Ford.
“Of course it was a success, we became better as a team,” said Jarred Helms, senior center. “Of course we didn’t get to where we wanted to, but overall I think it was a success.”
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