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| KILGORE - A pair of perennial rivals who always managed to play their best ball when the schedule pairs them against each other, staged a football game here Friday night which will be remembered and orally re-played for years to come. When it had ended, Kilgore's favored Bulldogs boasted a 13-6 triumph over a valiant Lobo squad which was fighting savagely at the gun.
A crowd estimated at 5,000 fans witnessed the classic. A 34-yard touchdown march in the second quarter and a blocked punt on the second play of the final period gave the winner's their paid of touchdowns. The Lobo running game, which was stopped cold during the entire fracas, was discarded in favor of a highly polished aerial barrage with less than three minutes remaining, and the maneuver came within three yards of paying off. Both teams battled on even ground throughout the initial period, but Kilgore pushed over a score in the second quarter. Jerry Eubanks, shifty Bulldog safety man, engineered the tally by returning Jim Nelson's 34-yard punt 18 yards to the Lobo 34-yard line. Jack Honea picked up three, but Eubanks lost four when Earl Williams nailed him behind the line on an attempted sweep around end. A jump pass from Johnny King to end "Woody" Woodson was good for a first down on the Lobo 24, then King broke away for a 10-yard gain to the Longview 14. Once more Eubanks skirted the end, and once more Williams came through to toss him for a five-yard loss, but the Lobos were off side on the play. So instead of Kilgore having second down coming up and 15 yards to go, they were handed a first down and a mere five yards to gain from the big Green nine-yard marker. A pair of line plunges by Jack Honea carried to the three, then King hit the middle for two. Honea eked across on the next play, then added the point. Dick Hurst recovered a Kilgore fumble two plays before the end of the scoreless third quarter and ironically enough, it led to the second Kilgore touchdown. After he had lost one on an off tackle slant, Gene Hardin got seven on a pitch-out around and Fox Cashell was smeared for a six-yard deficit on the opening play of the fourth period, then Jim Nelson went back to kick. The hard charging Bulldog line, which was in the Lobo backfield all night, came in fast to block Nelson's punt. The ball bounced back to the 30-yard line where guard Jimmy Hill scooped it up and raced over the goal line for the six pointer. With approximately three minutes remaining, the Lobos opened up with a display of aerial fireworks which almost tied up the ball game. Taking over on their own 37 after Jack Hisky's punt had rolled out of bounds at that point, the Lobos handed Johnny Linney the ball and told him to "start pitchin'." Linney hit Fox Cashell with a flat pass and Cashell went 64 yards to score, but the officials ruled that Fox had stepped out of bounds on the Bulldog 40, so the play was good for just 24 yards. Hardin fought his way around end for four precious yards, then Linney passed to Cashell down the right sideline and again Fox went all the way. But once more he had stepped out of bounds en route to the goal line, but the play was good for 22 yards down to Kilgore's 12. Another air-mail special from Linney to Cashell was good for 12 yards and a touchdown and Longview was back in the ball game. When Cashell muffed the extra point, the Lobo rooter were talking in terms of a tie, and they almost knew what they were talking about. Sonny Jones kicked off, then raced down to make one of the most vicious tackles this writer has ever witnessed. Three Kilgore running plays were good for only five yads and Hisky was forced to punt on fourth down. He got off a 35-yard spiral which rolled out on the Lobo 32, and once more the Green and White put the accent on passing. Linney sent a beauty to Cashell for 10, then sent one out in the flat ticketed to Fox who appeared to be in the clear. But a Bulldog defender raced in at the final second and deflected the ball out of Cashell's reach. Linney wound up again and fired a strike down the middle to Jimmy Nelson. The big fullback, who is still bothered by an early season knee injury, plucked the ball out of the air on the Kilgore 49, stiff armed one tackler, feinted away from two others, staggered through a broken field and galloped down to the Kilgore three before a lone Kilgore defender took a desperate leap at the touchdown bound Lobo and brought him down less than one stride from the glory land. There were 20 seconds remaining when Nelson took a crack at the line and fumbled when he was hit by five Bulldogs - almost simultaneously. Three was a Kilgore boy at the bottom of the pile when the referee completed his search for the ball and the Bulldogs took over. It was all over one play later and Kilgore had won 13-6. Williams, who went out of the game just before the end of the first half with a leg injury and his replacement, Bill Shaw, was the Lobo Lobo's line star and Nelson played a terrific game both offensively and defensively. The entire Kilgore line completely outmaneuvered the Lobo forwards, and the red-headed Eubanks stood out in the backfield. Cashell's broken field running, once he latched onto Linney's remarkable passes, was beautiful to behold. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that Linney is the district's top passer. |