A lot of folks felt the Jackrabbit offense was primed for a breakout game after facing three straight tough defenses. Count me among those. That means I was as surprised as anyone to see a score of 31-0, in favor of the visiting Creekview Mustangs, on the City Bank Stadium scoreboard at the end of a frustrating night for the Jackrabbits.
A lot of folks felt the Jackrabbit offense was primed for a breakout game after facing three straight tough defenses. Count me among those. That means I was as surprised as anyone to see a score of 31-0, in favor of the visiting Creekview Mustangs, on the City Bank Stadium scoreboard at the end of a frustrating night for the Jackrabbits.
The entire first quarter saw both offenses stutter and not put points on the board for either team. While both defenses played admirably, the lack of scoring was more the result of penalties and busted plays on both sides than anything either defense did. The only points were the result of a 65-yard punt return by Jamal Jones with just over 3 minutes left in the first quarter.
The Jackrabbits continued to lose the field position battle as the first half carried on. After an 18-yard Jackrabbit punt gave the Mustangs great field position at the Forney 35, Creekview QB David Blough and RB Raul Bastillos made short work of the opportunity and put the visitors up 13-0 at the 6:12 mark of the second quarter.
The best drive of the first half for Forney ended on a fourth down attempt that lost 5 yards. The Jackrabbits first snaps in Mustang territory occurred on this drive as Forney took the ball as far as the Creekview 38 yard line before the ill-fated fourth down play ended the drive and gave the ball back to Creekview. Creekview took advantage of the possession and capped it with a very strong 46-yard field goal by Christian Guerra-Barbosa.
At the half, the Jackrabbits had only been outgained by 50 yards, but were still staring at a 16-0 deficit due mainly to to the short fields the Mustangs saw most of the first half.
The third quarter was a nightmare of sorts for the Jackrabbit offense after the defense stalled two Creekview drives that resulted in missed field goals. After each missed field goal, the Jackrabbits turned the ball back over on fumbles after only two snaps and one snap, respectively.
Mustang QB David Blough put two more touchdowns on the board for his team, courtesy of 25 and 11-yard runs. As the final horn sounded, the Jackrabbits looked up and saw they were shut out for the first time this season. The game can be summed up by looking at the stat sheet and seeing there was not one snap on the Creekview side of the field in the entire third quarter. That is for both teams! For the entire game, Forney only managed 10 plays on the Creekview side of the field. The Jackrabbit defense gave up too many points, but they played much better than the scoreboard reflected.
GAME NOTES: Forney gained 151 yards for the game. Forney had five fumbles, losing two. Forney had a 34% pass completion rate and rushed for an average of 2.17 yards.