|
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|
||
|
|
| LONGVIEW - The Longview Lobos, who have been full of surprises this season, came up with another one here Friday night when they turned in what was probably their finest performance of the campaign to defeat the highly-regarded Galena Park Yellowjackets of District 12-AAAA, 13-6.
The victory left the Lobos undefeated in three games although they have a scoreless tie with Denison on their record. The loss was the second in three starts for Galena Park with both defeats coming at the hands of District 8-AAAA elevens. The other was a 14-13 setback by the Tyler Lions, favorites to win the 8-AAAA crown. The Lobos smashed their way to a touchdown halfway through the first quarter and stayed in command all the way, although they held a shaky lead of only 7-6 at the half. In addition to their two touchdowns, the Lobos frequently threatened and had the ball on Galena Park's one-yard line when the game ended. Longview once reached the Jackets' 12-yard stripe and on two other occasions pushed to Galena Park's 24 without scoring. Quarterbacks Bill Bolger and Bob (Applejack) Abney directed the Longview offense in top-notch fashion while the Lobos got some fine running from halfback Billy Coley and some brilliant line play all up and down the forward wall. End David Duncan, guards David Tutt and Bill Cochran, tackles Jimmy Wallace and George Hogan and center Andy Malone were all outstanding in the Longview line. The Lobos hit for a touchdown the second time they gained possession of the ball. End Robert Gillock, playing safety on kick situations, took Larry Bynum's punt on the dead run and returned it 44 yards to Galena Park's 36-yard line before he was finally pushed out of bounds. From there Longview lost no time in striking. Coley smacked left tackle for nine yards and Bolger ripped center for a first down on the Jackets' 20. On the next play Bolger recovered a pitchout fumble for a four-yard loss, but then he faked a pass, swept wide to his right and circled end for 19 yards and another first down on the Galena Park three. Bolger then carried for three straight plays and on the third he banged over center fro the one for a touchdown. With Bolger holding, Ray Chancellor place-kicked the extra point to give Longview a 7-0 lead with six minutes and 42 seconds left in the first quarter. Three of Longview's four first downs in the opening half came during the touchdown drive of the Lobos. Galena Park was shoved back in a deep hole on the next series of downs but Longview couldn't capitalize on the scoring chance. Bynum, back to punt on fourth down, saw a high snap from center sail over his head and he was downed by Hogan on the Yellowjackets' 23-yard stripe where the ball went over to Longview. Galena Park drew a 15-yard penalty for clipping on the play from the Jackets 27, giving Longview possession of the ball on the visitor's 12-yard line. Four plays later, however, netted the Lobos a loss of five yards and the Jackets took over on their own 17 to stem the tide. The hard-charging forward wall of the Jackets kept Longview's offense almost completely bottled up in the second quarter and Galena Park took advantage of the opportunity to drive 51 yard for a touchdown in nine plays with exactly 25 seconds remaining in the half when fullback Jerry Cook plunged over center for the final one yard. Billy Miley's place-kick on the try for extra point sailed wide to the left of the goal posts. A 34-yard pass from quarterback Bill Cox to end Billy Miley set up the touchdown and gave the Yellowjackets a first down on Longview's four to highlight the touchdown march. Miley gained three yards in three tries at the line and it began to look like the Lobos would hold before Cook went over on fourth down. Longview turned a Galena Park fumble into its second touchdown with five and a half minutes left in the third quarter. Bolger recovered Cook's fumble on the Jackets' 32-yard line. In three plays the Lobos picked up a first down on the 23-yard stripe, from where Abney dropped back and passed 18 yards to end David Duncan, who took the ball in the clear on the Galena Park five and raced into the end zone. Chancellor's kick on the try for extra point was wide. Galena Park made only one other scoring threat and it was a mild one late in the third quarter and was broken up when Bolger intercepted a pass by Cox on his own 10-yard line and ran it out of danger to the 27. Early in the fourth quarter, Malone, big Longview center, almost got away for a touchdown when he intercepted another pass by Cox and churned his way 47 yards back down the sidelines to the Galena Park 33. The big fellow, not noted for his speed, simply kept fighting back upfield and the Jackets kept bouncing off him. He even managed to finally break into the clear but was eventually run down from behind. That threat, however, died out on the Yellowjackets' 24-yard line when two passes went incomplete and two running plays lacked just one yard of a first down. Before the quarter was over Longview had battled back into scoring territory again, largely not eh strength of a fine 26-yard scamper by Coley, but once more Galena Park held for downs on its 24-yard line. When the Yellowjackets tried to pass their way out of trouble after holding on their 24, Cox was thrown for a total of 20 yards in losses by the hard-charging Longview forward wall on three straight pass attempts back to his own four. Bynum punted out and Bolger returned the ball 17 yards in a zig-zag run to reach the Galena Park 16. In four plays, the Lobos picked up a first down on the Jackets' four with 44 seconds left but time ran out with Longview on the Galena Park one and fourth down coming up. |