The Wildcats football team showed a lot of fight in their second and final scrimmage before the fall 2021 season, but fell to the visiting Pleasant Grove Hawks 21-7 on Aug. 19, 2021 at Gerald Prim Stadium.
Things did not start as Coach Greg Owens would have liked, as the Hawks got the ball to start the scrimmage and proceeded to go an an eight play, 71 yard drive that ended with a 1-yard rushing touchdown to put Pleasant Grove ahead 7-0 with 6:29 left in the first quarter.
The offense answered with a fumble on their next drive, putting the Hawks in prime scoring position.
They cashed in a few plays later to go ahead by two scores at 14-0 with four minutes left in the first quarter.
The Wildcats thereafter then had their first drive of the night that had more than 10 plays; an 11-play drive that ended with two consecutive incompletions on third and fourth down at the Pleasant Grove 27 to turn the ball over on downs.
The game slowed down after that; the Wildcats and Hawks would go on to punt three drives in a row before the Wildcats produced the longest drive of the night both in terms of time and number of plays.
Sulphur Springs started with the ball at the Wildcats 1 yard line before going on a 15-play, almost six-minute drive that ended with a Matthew Mitchell interception at the Hawks 10-yard line.
Were there not 0:31 seconds left in the first half after the Wildcats interception, Pleasant Grove would have scored again — in four plays the Hawks travelled 87-yards in 31 seconds before a pass break-up in the end zone as time expired in the first half did the drive come to an end.
Sulphur Springs came out of halftime with the ball but punted after seven plays.
Pleasant Grove responded with a turnover on downs in four plays.
The Wildcats got their first and only score of the night when QB Brady Driver fought tooth and nail to get his team in to the end zone. Sulphur Springs went on a six-play, three-minute drive that ended with Driver helicoptering his way into the end zone to make the score 14-7 in favor of the visiting Hawks with 3:57 left in the third quarter.
From there, both teams pushed their way to victory but it was ultimately Pleasant Grove who pulled ahead thanks to a late-touchdown to ice the game at 21-7 with 0:41 left in the game.
The scrimmage was called after the touchdown’s extra point was kicked giving Sulphur Springs a 21-7 defeat int their second and final scrimmage before the fall 2021 regular season.
Next up, Coach Owens and his staff will shift their focus to their regular season opener next Friday when they host the Frisco Wakeland Wolverines at Gerald Prim Stadium.
The season-opener next Friday, Aug. 27, is set to kick-off at 7:30 P.M.
The season schedule can be found here.
KSST is proud to be the official Wildcat and Lady Cat Station. We broadcast Sulphur Springs ISD games year round live on radio. When allowed, we also broadcast games via our YouTube channel.
