Clutch defense, a little luck and overtime proved a winning combination for the
Cibola football team Saturday.
Overcoming five turnovers, the Cougars came up
with a clinching goal-line stand to edge La Cueva 21-14 in an overtime thriller
at Milne Stadium.
The third-ranked Cougars (6-1) controlled the
action for much of the game, but couldn’t hold on to the ball well enough to
lock things up. Eighthranked La Cueva (3-4) finally took advantage with a
10-play, 67-yard drive to tie the score at 14-14 with 1:10 left in regulation.
But in overtime, Cibola quarterback Jonathan
Mader scored on a 5-yard run to put his team on top.
La Cueva tried to answer, driving inside the
Cougars’ 1 on its overtime possession. But on fourth down, Bears quarterback
Harry Oms bobbled the snap and was stopped short of the end zone.
“Heart. It was all heart,” Cibola linebacker
Indiana Jones said of his team’s defensive stand. “(Defensive tackle) Rio Mares
submarined the play and caused that fumble, and everyone just stuffed the middle
to make sure.”
The Cougars’ defense effectively bailed out an
offense that seemed bent on selfdestruction. Cibola fumbled away the opening
kickoff, lost a fumble on its third play from scrimmage, fumbled the ball away
on the La Cueva 1 and twice gave up interceptions deep in Bears territory.
“We got so lucky,” said Cougars running back
Chase Bennison, who rushed for a game-high 92 yards but also had one of his
team’s fumbles. “We should’ve had this game under our belts but we let it go
with stupid errors. We won, but we’ve got to clean things up.”
La Cueva also seemed to be its own worst enemy
at times. The Bears had two turnovers and were flagged 12 times for 86 yards in
penalties.
The Bears missed a chance to knock Cibola in
an early hole after recovering the gameopening fumble at the Cougar 28. La Cueva
promptly drove inside the 10, but Richard Bohlken was stopped a yard short on
fourth-and-two at the CHS 8 and the Bears came away empty.
La Cueva capitalized on Cibola’s next fumble,
driving 26 yards to score. Oms’ 1-yard plunge on fourth down gave the Bears a
7-0 lead.
The Cougars played a solid second quarter,
putting together two scoring drives. Mader hit Joe Lehocky with 28- and 14-yard
touchdown passes to give Cibola a 14-7 halftime lead.
Neither team accomplished much in a sloppy
third quarter that included three turnovers, two punts and a missed field goal.
But Oms jump-started the Bears in the fourth, intercepting a Mader pass and
returning it to the La Cueva 33.
Ten plays later, Bohlken scored the tying
touchdown on an 3-yard run with 1:10 left.
La Cueva forced a quick Cibola punt and had a
chance to win on Gordon Rowe’s 54-yard field goal attempt with six seconds
remaining. But the wind-aided kick fell just short.
