The Bowie Jackrabbits ran out of time for a second week in a row playing at Henrietta on Friday night.
The Bearcats held off a fourth quarter rally from the Jackrabbits to win 29-26.
Henrietta came in as favorite after winning its first two games while Bowie was still looking for its first victory. While the Jackrabbits were coming in with some confidence after coming back from 30 points down against Bridgeport the previous week and falling only one point short.
Bowie’s offense was going to take a hit as quarterback Brody Armstrong would have to sit out the first half of the game after being disqualified at the end of the previous game. Back-up sophomore Zac Harris would lead the Bowie offense and hope to put the team in a good position to win.
The Jackrabbit offense got into Bearcat territory on their first drive after a good kickoff return. Unfortunately, the offense fumbled the ball to Henrietta who returned it into Bowie territory. Later the Bearcats scored on a 16-yard touchdown pass to go up 7-0.
Henrietta scored on its next drive featuring a heavy dose of the run game, steadily driving down the field until punching it in from the one-yard-line to make it 14-0.
The Jackrabbit defense got their first stop of the game before the first quarter was done. Case Curry jumped up to intercept a pass a midfield.
The Bowie offense would take advantage. After converting a fourth and long during the drive, Harris would connect downfield with receiver A.J. Whatley for a 17-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 14-6 to begin the second quarter.
Both defenses were able to stifle any more scoring from the other team’s offense for the rest of the half, including forcing turnover on downs deep in their own territories. While the Jackrabbit defense did tighten things up, the Bearcats shot themselves in the foot every drive with penalties that set them back that helped Bowie.
The Jackrabbits were down only one score heading into halftime and would be getting their starting quarterback back who hopefully could jumpstart the offense.
Henrietta cleaned up the penalties and took the opening drive right down the field before scoring on a short run to up the lead to 21-6.
Bowie’s offense did not immediately change with Armstrong in the game as it turned the ball over on downs on its own 35 after only four plays. The Bearcats took advantage of the shortened field and scored on another short run to make it 29-6 midway through the third quarter.
The Jackrabbits were not going to give up though as they had been down worse just the previous week. On Bowie’s next drive, Armstrong used his legs to extend the play before firing deep and connecting with Whatley on a 46-yard touchdown that energized the Jackrabbit side, cutting the lead to 29-12.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter after the Bowie defense was able to get a stop the Jackrabbit offense drove into the Henrietta territory, but unfortunately turned the ball over on an interception while facing a fourth and long.
Thankfully Bowie’s defense was able to get another stop and the Jackrabbits quickly moved down field and scored when Armstrong took off down the right side for a 24-yard touchdown run to cut the lead to 29-18 with 5:47 to play.
Bowie went for an onside kick that was pooched into air instead of on the ground and it was recovered by the Jackrabbits Trevor Hopson.
Things were not looking good as two negative plays pushed the Jackrabbits back into their own territory despite starting at midfield, facing a third and forever.
Bowie somehow converted thanks to a 41-yard pass to Hunter Taylor and later would score when Armstrong found running back Matthew McCarty open out in the flats and he ran around the right side for a 27-yard catch and run touchdown.
The Jackrabbits then scored their only two-point conversion of the game to cut the lead to 29-26 with 4:22 left to play.
The previous scoring sequence somehow only took 1:25 and everything had been going Bowie’s way during the quarter. The team still had two timeouts and the defense had been getting stops since midway through the third quarter. Even if the team could not recover another onside kick, surely the defense could get the ball back.
Unfortunately, the Jackrabbit offense never saw the field again. Henrietta recovered the onside kick and slowly but surely ran out the remaining time, never facing a scary fourth down conversion that would have stopped things.
Bowie ran out of time again, losing 29-26.

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