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| LONGVIEW - Taking full advantage of loose ball handling by Longview, the Palestine Wildcats notched their first victory of the season in three starts by handing the lobos a stunning 14-0 defeat here Friday night before another near-capacity stadium with some 6,500 fans.
It was a night of complete frustration for the fumbling Lobos, who suffered their first loss after two wins to begin the campaign. The Lobos were disappointed in their running attack, especially in the first half, and any positive play would often only lead to either losing the ball on fumbles or on down in the face of a stubborn defensive play by the Wildcats. Instead of having a punt, the lobos lost possession of the ball no less than ten times during the night, eight on fumbles and twice on interceptions. Longview fumbled six times in the first half with Palestine recovering four of them. The Lobos fumble no less than 11 times in the game, five of them in the last half with Palestine again recovering four times. A heavy rain fell just hours before opening kickoff but don't leave the playing field responsible for all of Longview's fumbles. In sharp contrast, the ball handling of the Wildcats from Palestine bobbled the ball just twice in the game, although they failed to recover on both occasions. Palestine scored a touchdown in the first quarter and then hung on to repeatedly thwart one Longview scoring threat after another until the Wildcats finally got a chance to put across the clinching touchdown on a freak play that was as a result of a fumble and which the Palestines covered in the end zone for a score. Longview had in first downs 13 to 10, but Palestine had a slim margin in total net yards 242 to 231. Palestine scored a touchdown the second time the Wildcats had possession of the ball. After Garner recovered a Longview fumble on the Lobos' 41-yard line, Palestine ran one line buck then quarterback George Rogers gifted a 12-yard pass to Robert Garner who lateralled to halfback John Ousley on the Longview 29-yard stripe and Ousley went untouched into the end zone. Bob Smith kicked the extra point from placement to give Palestine a 7-0 lead with eight minutes and 42 seconds still left to play in the opening period. The defense of the Longview eleven were kept bogged down on their side of the field the entire first half. Fumbling it five times, the Lobos lost the ball once on a blocked punt and four times on fumbles, which were recovered by the alert Wildcats. Longview piled up 10 first downs to just one for Palestine I the first half, had 71 yards rushing and 78 yards through the air to 44 for Palestine but when the Lobos left the field at the intermission they had the deficit in the score. The Lobos made a serious scoring threat late in the first quarter when the Wildcats braced to punt on downs inside their 20. Longview grabbed the punt on the Lobo 40 yard stripe. The Lobos got a pulse when quarterback Jerry Crawford fired a 21-yard pass to halfback Horace Johnson, then added another 1 from Thomas, who saw only limited action in the game because of an injury. Thomas then barged over tackle for 10 yards but. A 15-yard penalty for clipping set Longview back on the Wildcat's 33. The Lobos marched to Palestine's 18-yard on the drive before losing possession of the ball on down. Midway through the second period Longview launched another threat but once again Palestine as equal to the occassion and halted the Lobos short of pay dirt. The Lobos took over on their own 41 after a Palestine punt and Crawford whipped a 30-yard pass to halfback Tony Rothrock. Thomas, Rothrock and Crawford collaborated in the ball carrying duties to reach Palestine's 14-yard stripe only to see the Wildcats once again brace and hold for downs at that point. The Lobos threatened still a third time just before the end of the half. With the air of passes from James Wood to end Curtis Lemmonds for 11 yards and another from Crawford to Rothrock for 15, Longview pushed down to the Wildcats' 16. This time an intercepted pass turned the tide for Palestine as Garner snared a Longview pass on the Wildcats' 10-yard line and raced it back 60 yards to Longview's 30-yard stripe before Wood ran him down from behind just one play before the buzzer sounded for the end of the half. The last half was almost a complete reversal on the part of the Wildcats as they began to get their offense into operation and turned in nine first downs to three for Longview in the final two periods and rolled to 175 yards on the ground while Longview was limited to just 55 yards rushing and nothing at all through the air. Palestine threatened in the early moments of the fourth quarter when Ousley broke over left tackle and raced 51 yards to Longview's four yard-line before halfback Boots Cashell ran him down. Dale Hanks picked up two yards through the line but on the next play a fumble finally turned in favor of the Lobos when Ousley was tackled just short of the goal line. The ball squirted out of his hands and into the end zone, where it was recovered by Thomas, giving Longview possession on its own 20-yard line. Five plays later, however, the Lobos fumbled the ball right back to Palestine and tackle Bobby Soon recovered for the Wildcats on his own 41. Ousley skipped through tackle for 22 yards and two plays later Rogers added another 10. The Wildcats then drew a 15-yard penalty for illegal use of the hands and the ball finally went over to Longview on its own three. Crawford picked up a yard through the line for the Lobos and on the next play faded behind his own goal line for an attempted pass but Gerald Moore broke through to knock the ball from Crawford's hand and fell on it in the end zone for Palestine's second touchdown with four minutes and 18 seconds remaining to play. Smith again converted from placement to end the scoring. Aaron (Arab) Dykes, defensive end for Longview's suffered a leg injury on the final play of the game and had to be carried from the field. An examination in the dressing room, however, revealed that the injury is not as serious as was first believed. It appeared that Dykes suffered a wrenched knee on the play but he is expected to be recovered within several days. |