Bearcats push past Little Elm, set stage for contest with Stephenville

Sally Sexton

sports@weatherforddemocrat.com

JUSTIN — Another playoff win to go along with another playoff appearance for the Aledo Bearcats.

On Friday night, the Bearcats showed just why they have made the playoffs the past 14 years, winning in a rather convincing fashion over Little Elm Friday night, 41-7, at Northwest ISD Stadium.

“The big thing is we get to play next week. That’s what we talk to these kids about,” said Aledo head coach Tim Buchanan. “You have so many young kids out there and the seniors have got to be the ones to put forth the motivation for these young kids to play hard and play to win every game.”

The Bearcats defense flexed its muscles early, holding the Lobos to one first down before punting.

On Aledo’s ensuing drive, Bishop threw passes of 14, 16 and 12 yards to get Aledo to a first-and-goal situation before handing the ball off to Johnathan Gray for a 5-yard touchdown run with 5:44 left in the first quarter.

After another defensive stop, the Bearcats got the ball all the way down to the Lobo 2-yard line, but a fumble gave the ball back to Little Elm to end the threat.

The game got a little sloppy to start the second quarter, with both teams giving up a turnover. Little Elm’s fumble, recovered by Rob Blowers, gave Aledo the ball near mid-field. Bishop took advantage to throw a 30-yard completion to Trey Ozee, putting the ball in Lobo territory. Bishop’s own 27-yard scamper set up a first-and-goal situation, allowing Gray to run three yards before finding the end zone.

On the night, Bishop was 11-of-15 with an interception, 168 yards, and a touchdown.

“Matt did a good job. He made a few little mistakes, but all quarterbacks are going to make mistakes,” Buchanan said. “For the most part, he did what he was supposed to do. We dropped some balls earlier, and it kind of created some frustrations.”

Leading 14-0 after the halftime break, the Bearcats came out with guns blazing, using eight plays to arrange a connection between Bishop and Gray. With pressure on and nowhere to run for the sophomore quarterback, Bishop found Gray along the sidelines, who ran for a 22-yard score, his only catch of the night.

Bishop’s main target came to be Michael Mann, who had a season-high seven receptions for 91 yards.

“Because of the way they lined up in the secondary, instead of throwing the ball more, we threw a little hitch out there to Michael. Bishop read that,” Buchanan said. “Our kids played hard and got after it tonight. It wasn’t a line penetration, just doing jobs and whipping the man in front of you is what it came down to.”

Ozee and Gray took turns carrying, accounting for two touchdowns in the third quarter to put the game away, 35-0.

Ozee had a part in 126 yards of offense for the Bearcats, dabbling the passing, receiving and rushing categories, while Gray was held to a somewhat-modest 143 yards rushing.

“They put a bunch of guys up there and really keyed on Johnathan so Trey had to run it a few times and Matt had to run it a few times to break some tendencies that we had. They did a really good job with that,” Buchanan said.

With the win, Aledo moves forward to take on long-time rival Stephenville in the Class 4A-Division II area game Friday. Stephenville defeated Fort Worth Polytechnic, 62-13. Kickoff is tentatively scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the new Cowboys Stadium.

“I know they want to play us really bad and our kids want to play them bad too,” Buchanan said.

The last time the Bearcats and Yellow Jackets squared off on Aug. 28, Aledo pulled out a 20-16 win.

Aledo 41, Little Elm 7

AHS 7 7 21 6 - 41

LEHS 0 0 0 7 - 7

Scoring drives

First quarter

AHS- Johnathan Gray 5 run (Andrew Kocurek kick)

Second quarter

AHS- Gray 3 run (Kocurek kick)

Third quarter

AHS- Matthew Bishop 22 pass to Gray (Kocurek kick)

AHS- Trey Ozee 5 run (Kocurek kick)

AHS- Gray 3 run (Kocurek kick)

Fourth quarter

AHS- Devin Davis 1 run (kick blocked)

LEHS- DJ Haynes 48 run (Matt Utt kick)

Team stats

AHS LE

First downs 25 7

Rushes-Yds 43-260 32-141

Passing Yds 224 22

Com-Att-Int 13-17-0 5-7-0

Total Yds 484 163

Punts-Avg 0 4-49

Fumbles-Lost 2-1 5-2

Penalties-Yds 1-15 6-32

Individual leaders

Rushing

AHS- Johnathan Gray, 25-143; Trey Ozee, 4-39; Jake Tago, 3-30. LEHS- DJ Haynes, 3-68; Bryant Johnson, 6-27; Darnell Adams, 7-22.

Passing

AHS- Matthew Bishop, 11-15-1; Ozee, 1-1-0. LEHS- Devanate Pullum, 3-4-0; Adams, 1-2-0; Brandon Dudley, 1-1-0.

Receiving

AHS- Michael Mann, 7-91; Logan Whitfield, 2-56; Ozee, 2-36. LEHS- Clifton Murphy, 1-13; Johnson, 1-6.