The West Boca High School football team, the Bulls, had a disappointing loss Friday night to the Atlantic High Eagles. It had been a strong season for the Bulls up to this point, but the Eagles came in and held the Bulls scoreless while putting up 13 points of their own.
The game started with a good performance from the Vanguard marching band and the team looked good at the beginning.
The game started on a sour note for the Bulls as they lost a fumble on the first play from scrimmage. Perhaps that was foreshadowing. Despite that they held the Eagles to a 3 and out on their first drive and then the Bulls moved the ball well at first.
Here’s an example, a pass play where they got about 7 yards.
That drive stalled at the Atlantic 40 yard line. For the rest of the first quarter both offenses struggled and the score was tied at 0-0.
In the second quarter Atlantic made some big plays and scored a field goal and then a touchdown. West Boca’s offense struggled for the rest of the game. We kept hearing Jerrod Ferguson’s name and he made a big interception in toward the end of the 2nd quarter, but the Bulls offense was unable to convert that into points.
On 4th and 9 their field goal attempt fell short. This reporter thought they had a better shot of getting a first down and should’ve gone for it, but it’s easy to say that from the stands.
In the second half neither offense did much though the Eagles did score on a late field goal to push the final score to 13-0.
For the Bulls it seemed like Bulls QB Matt Gross and his receivers were out of sync. On one play he threw what looked like a good pass but the receiver had given up on the play. On others Gross overthrew open men.
Despite the frustrations of a tough game, the players maintained their composure throughout the game. We’re hopeful they’ll learn from this and play better in their next game.
On the bright side, the band seemed to have fun. They were joined by students from the Loggers’ Run Middle School band for performance in the stands.
