The Bowie Jackrabbits lost their first game Friday night at Henrietta.
The Bearcats won the game 38-17 as the Jackrabbits failed to keep the score close from the beginning.
Bowie was coming into the game feeling good after wins against Nocona and Bridgeport in the first two weeks of the season. The Jackrabbits had never fallen behind in those games, but did in the first quarter.
Henrietta quarterback Braden Bell threw two touchdowns, one an 18-yard strike over the middle to Klein Essler and one a touch pass to receiver Baron Brown on a jet sweep to from two yards out. The Bearcats led 14-0 heading into the second quarter.
Bowie responded with its best drive of the night, marching down the field running the ball right down Henrietta’s throat with a lot of Matthew McCarty running the ball. He finished off the drive with a seven-yard run to cut the lead to 14-7 early in the quarter.
The Jackrabbits had another chance to score late in the quarter driving all the way down to the Bearcats’ 10-yard line. Unfortunately, they turned the ball over on downs.
With 1:50 before halftime, it looked like Bowie would go in trailing by only one score after a rough start.
Henrietta instead marched down the field quickly with big plays in the passing game as Bell found both Brown and receiver Fisher Pullen for big gains. The Bearcats capped the drive with a touchdown as Brown out jumped Bowie’s cornerback in the end zone for an 22-yard touchdown right before halftime, putting Henrietta up 21-7.
The chance to tie the game up and get momentum back never came back up again in the second half.
The Bearcats capped another scoring drive with a short touchdown run from Ty Deaton to push the lead to 28-7.
After another disappointing offensive drive for the Jackrabbits, Devin Melton kicked a great punt down to Henrietta’s one-yard line. The defense was then able to stuff the Bearcats for a loss and get a safety to cut the lead to 28-9.
If Bowie could take advantage of the short field and score quickly there was still just enough time for a fourth quarter comeback.
The Jackrabbits did not. When Henrietta got the ball back the team had another successful drive that was capped with Bell scoring on a short touchdown run to increase the lead to 35-9 with most of the fourth quarter still to play.
Bowie’s offense found some life on its next drive as Landon Felts hit Jake Fallis over the middle for a 46-yard touchdown pass. A good two-point conversion from Felts to Fallis cut the lead to 35-17 with 8:45 to play.
Down three scores, the Jackrabbits needed its defense to get a quick stop if they wanted to have any hope.
Instead the Bearcats embarked on a long drive that chewed up almost all of the remaining time in the game. With seven seconds left in the game, Henrietta converted on a 41-yard field goal to make the final score 38-17.

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