“We just overthrew the guy. We had a wide-open tight end,” Bowlin said.
Less than two minutes later, East responded with a big play of its own. On third-and-17 from its own 20-yard line, Cody Garrett dumped a short pass off to Thomas on the left side. Thomas dipped and dodged tackles the next 80 yards to give East the lead back. Skylar Rose ran the ball in for the two-point conversion to make it 14-7.
“We threw the ball a little better,” Bowlin said. “That was something we committed to working on ... make sure we got the ball outside a little bit and kept (the defense) honest.”
Garrett was 2-for-4 passing for 93 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
A Spencer County field goal to open the second quarter sustained some of the Bears momentum, but their defense still could not slow down the East attack.
Thomas and Seth Hunt moved the ball 63 yards, culminating in another touchdown run by Thomas. The point after gave the Jags a 21-10 lead.
Hunt rushed for 43 yards on 13 carries on the night.
The Bears tacked on another field goal before the half, but East responded coming out of the intermission
with a 65-yard socring drive. Thomas scored for a fourth time, running the ball in from 19 yards out. Hunt ran in a two-point conversion to give East a 29-13 edge.
Thomas ended the night with 186 rushing yards on 26 carries and one catch for 80 yards.
Spencer County broke its second big play of the night, returning a punt 72 yards for a score late in the third quarter.
“We had some young guys out there that just weren’t expecting that ... I told them with two deep returners, watch for the reverse, and we just got sucked inside, made some mistakes,” Bowlin said.
The East defense was once again on its toes, holding the Bears to 90 total yards and six points on offense. The Jags also had a handful of sacks, and Tyler Edmundson and Rose each recovered a fumble.
“Defensively, I was really proud of our kids. We only gave up six points tonight defensively,” Bowlin said.
East has this week off and will be back in action Sept. 9 as it hosts Paul Laurence Dunbar at 7:30 p.m.
“Things went well ... It’s still a little bit hot, and we didn’t get a whole lot of things going early on offense,” Bowlin said. “We’re going to get there. We have to find out who we’re still missing on blocks, figure out where our weaknesses are. We’re still trying to figure out what we have as a football team.”
