Bobcats fall a yard short at Greenland

The Berryville Bobcats weren’t ready to play last Friday on the road at Greenland, first-year coach Macklin Chermak said Monday.

Greenland took advantage, building an early lead and then hanging on to beat the Bobcats 14-7.

Berryville (1-1) had opened the season with a 1613 home victory over West Fork a week earlier in Chermak’s first game as a head coach.

“We came out really flat,” Chermak said. “We came out a little better in the second half but still not anywhere near our potential. That’s definitely on us as a coaching staff and players. We’ve got to find a way to be focused.”

Greenland struck early with a 62-yard touchdown pass less than five minutes into the game, then extended its lead to 14-0 with a short touchdown run in the closing moments of the first half.

Berryville got one score back when junior quarterback Decimus Ruiz broke free for a 14-yard touchdown run with 28 seconds remaining in the third quarter. Andre Esparza’s extra point made it 14-7.

With a chance to win with a touchdown and two-point conversion, Berryville drove deep inside Greenland territory midway through the fourth quarter but failed to convert on fourth and goal from inside the Pirates’ 1-yard line with 5:21 remaining.

“We really had them on the ropes,” Chermak said. “We were driving pretty good. They were tired. We missed a huge opportunity to really take advantage of momentum there.”

After the turnover on downs, Greenland ran out the clock to clinch the victory.

“They had some success with a few plays and they went back to those plays over and over and over again,” Chermak said. “We did OK on those plays but we’ve got to find a way to adjust and do better.”

Berryville will travel to Magazine on Friday to face a Ratttlers team that was outscored 103-6 in its first two games but defeated Danville 32-20 last week.

“They’re obviously a smaller school, less kids than we have. But we can’t take them lightly. We can’t come out flat like we did last Friday.”