It was not the happy end to homecoming week the Bowie Jackrabbits would have liked as they lost to Holliday on Friday night.
A spiraling second quarter led to a one sided game and a forgetable second half as the Eagles won 44-6.
The whole game was accompanied by a constant downpour that started Friday morning and did not let up all weekend. This favored Holliday, whose triple option and big offensive line favored them running the ball the majority of the time.
It did not start out well for the Jackrabbits. A three-and-out on the opening offensive possession was a sign of things to come as Bowie failed to get a first down in the first half and did not complete a pass.
The Eagles were able to take the ball on their opening possession and, thanks to a big run from Holliday’s Tristin Boyd down inside the Jackrabbits red zone, scored on a six-yard run to go up 7-0.
After that opening possession, the Bowie defense stepped up and did a good job containing the Eagles ground attack. Holliday did not help themselves as they had a game high 10 penalties. This put their offense behind the sticks and the Jackrabbit defense held up and only allowed four of 12 third down conversions throughout the game.
Bowie’s offense continued to struggle and punting near its end zone a bad exchange between the long snapper and punter allowed Holliday to get back and affect the punt. After a mad scramble, the ball went out the back of the end zone for a safety as the Eagles led 9-0 heading into the second quarter.
Despite how one-sided the first quarter seemed, the score was still within reach if the offense could get anything going in the second quarter. Unfortunately, the only thing that got going was Holliday.
It started with a short Eagles touchdown run that finished the drive they had started following the safety. On the kickoff, the kick was squibbed to an unsuspecting player on the second row who could not gather it as Holliday recovered. They capitalized by scoring on a short touchdown pass to make it 23-0.
Bowie then fumbled on their next possession deep in their territory and Holliday scored again on a short run. The Jackrabbits tried to get something going before the half, but went three-and-out again.
It was the Eagles who were able to score before the half, again on a short run. The final nail in the coffin for the quarter was Holliday intercepting a pass. Thankfully, they did not turn this into more points as the halftime score was 37-0.
The good news was the Jackrabbits could only play better in the second half and playing against an Eagles team with a mix of second teamers as the half went on, they did. Bowie got their first first down on their opening drive of the second half and were able to complete a few big pass plays in the second half.
The big one went to Jed Castles from 30 yards out on the last play of the third quarter that kept Bowie from getting shutout as the score was cut to 44-6. The teams played to a standstill in the fourth quarter as the game ended with that final.

To read the full story, including full stats, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.