NEWBERRY — The Newberry High School Bulldogs fell to the Union County High School Yellow Jackets 28-21 Friday night.
The Yellow Jackets posted the first set of points of the night, running the ball into the end zone for a 74 yard touchdown, a successful PAT would start the Yellow Jackets off 7-0.
The Bulldogs would get on the board two minutes into the second quarter after quarterback Zay Chalmers connected with Zymere Epps, the extra point by Rodrigo Nava-Munoz was good, the game tied 7-7.
Shortly, the ball would go back to the Bulldogs after a fumble by the Yellow Jackets on the punt return, the Bulldogs punted back to the Yellow Jackets on fourth down.
Returning from halftime, the Yellow Jackets would break the tie after quarterback Kesean Glover found his way into the end zone, the extra point was good, the Yellow Jackets leading 14-7.
Glover would find the end zone a second time in the contest with 6:48 to go in the third, a successful extra point left the Bulldogs trailing 21-7.
The Yellow Jackets soon regained ball possession after a pass from Chalmers to Asaris Good was deflected by Union, a third touchdown by Glover and successful PAT extended the Yellow Jacket’s lead to 28-7 with 1:20 left in the third quarter.
Going into the final quarter, the Bulldogs began to catch up to the Yellow Jackets with Chalmers finding the end zone, the extra point was good, the score 28-14.
A fumble by the Yellow Jackets was recovered by Good and the Bulldogs regained possession with time winding down.
A fumble in the end zone by Ahmorae Wilmore was recovered by KT Robinson for the touchdown, the extra point was good, the Bulldogs trailing by one touchdown, neither team would score again as time ran out for the final score of 28-21.
“I felt like the first half we let some opportunities get away from us, we had a couple of dropped passes, second half they just drove it down the field and scored, but I’ll tell you what our kids didn’t quit, didn’t give up, we fought back and had a chance to get back in the ball game,” said Head Coach Phil Strickland.
This week the Bulldogs will be traveling to Prosperity to take on Mid-Carolina High School for the final game of the regular season, Strickland hopes that the Bulldogs can finish the regular season with a win.
“We’ll get ready like we always do. We haven’t really studied any film, we’ll get to work and figure out how to stop them and try to beat this team, we need this win to secure a better playoff seed,” Strickland said.
The Rebels are going into this week’s game 1-8 overall and 0-4 in Region play after falling to Woodruff High School Wolverines 48-3 last week.
Kick off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.