The Bowie Jackrabbits opened their season with a tough home loss to Graham on Friday night.
The 4A Steers won 56-14 against the Jackrabbits in a game that was not close after the first quarter.
Bowie came into the game knowing it had a tough task. Graham is returning a lot of skill position starters from a team that went to the playoffs last year and is running an up-tempo spread offense.
The Jackrabbits are transitioning on both sides of the ball, learning multiple formations on offense to lean on while working a 4-3 defense.
With the Steers offense its strength, Bowie hoped it could lean on its flex bone formation and run it down Graham’s throat while keeping the ball away from its high scoring offense.
Both teams punted the ball away on their first possessions, but the Steers struck first. An errant snap to the quarterback Ty Thompson was scooped up by him who then scrambled around before finding a receiver just behind the Jackrabbits defense who pulled it down inside the 10-yard line.
From there, Graham scored on a short quarterback sneak to go up 7-0.
Bowie answered on its next drive. Sophomore quarterback Rayder Mann, starting his first game, found Troy Kesey down the middle of the field for a big gain deep in the Steers territory.
A few plays later, a sort of flea flicker type of pitch back to Mann allowed him to find Tucker Jones wide open for an 18-yard touchdown catch to cut the lead down to 7-6.
That was as competitive as the game was from then on. Graham immediately answered. Its success with receiver screens on the perimeter and runs up the middle with the its running back drew Bowie’s defense in which allowed the Steers to take a shot.
Thompson found speedy Peyton Kinman for a 46-yard touchdown pass with the safeties drawn closer to the line.
Graham was up 14-6 heading into the second quarter and it was only the beginning.
The Steers scored three more times in the half as it seemed Bowie’s defense had no answer for what Graham wanted to do. Whether through sustained drives that ended with red zone touchdowns or a big pass plays over the top, the Steers were running away with it up 35-6.
Before halftime there was an incident on the Jackrabbits sideline when Jones suffered an unnecessary roughness penalty during a kickoff return by getting slung into the bench. With Graham getting some calls for that back in the first quarter and with it happening in the middle of Bowie’s sideline, a teammate slammed the opposing player on the ground.
The two were separated before it became too ugly and both sat out the rest of the game.
The Jackrabbits had their second most productive drive of the game after that, but unfortunately stalled out at the Steer’s 33-yard line and it went to halftime.
Bowie came out in the second half with a renewed commitment on offense to run it up the middle for short but productive gains over and over. Unfortunately, it left little room for error as one not so good run could get the Jackrabbits off script. Bowie turned the ball over on downs on Graham’s 22-yard line this time, but its next drive would prove successful.
This time, the Jackrabbits got a big play as Jax Johnston got loose for a long run before getting caught inside the Steer’s red zone. From there, Seth Mann was able to punch the ball in from short yardage to give Bowie its second touchdown of the game.
Unfortunately, things remained the same on defense as Graham scored twice more on offense before that so Mann’s touchdown made the score 49-12.
Still, the Jackrabbits kept fighting. In the ensuing kickoff, Will Cross recovered a fumble. Unfortunately, Bowie gave the ball right back as a ball sailed out of reach for Kesey for an interception for the Steers near their own goal line.
Backed near its own end zone, Graham seemed to feel the Jackrabbits defensive pressure as Kason Martin came through to sack the quarterback for a safety and make the score 49-14 heading into the fourth quarter.
Bowie could not build from that momentum to score again. Another interception from Bowie and Graham scoring on one more big pass play were the only notable things to happen the rest of the game.
The Steers won 56-14.

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