Gobblers strut over Ricebirds

By Jacob Stock

The Cuero Record

It had been a long 259 days without Gobbler football but the much-anticipated arrival to the season finally arrived last Friday night, Aug. 26, at Ricebird Stadium. The Mean Green opened the year with a 43-14 rout over the Ricebirds of El Campo.

“I am so proud of these kids tonight and the effort that they put in,” said head coach Jerod Fikac who led the Gobblers into battle for the first time. “It was a complete effort. We have some things to clean up when it comes to penalties, but we are going to look and talk about that and continue to get better.”

Heading into the battle of the birds match up a lot of talk centered around what a Gobbler defense would look like that returns a flock of defenders from last year’s state semi-finalist team. On the other end, for the #4 ranked El Campo Ricebirds, there was prominent running back Rueben Owens.

Cuero, who is ranked #6 in the 4A Division II ranks opened up the scoring with 28 unanswered points leaving the opposing sidelines stunned.

On the ground, the Gobblers rushed for a whopping 417 yards that saw seven different ball carriers register in the box score. Making his first start at quarterback for the Greens was junior Mason Notaro who looked calm, cool, and collected from the first snap.

                                            Game Stats

                              Cuero                  El Campo

First Downs               23                       12

Yards Rushing        43-417              44-132

Yards Passing           163                      18

Total Yards               580                     150

Punts                          0                     4-155

Fumbles                    2-0                    0-0

Penalties                  11-100               8-50

The first score of the season came just two minutes and 31 seconds into the game when Notaro hit senior Dayson Varela on a 29-yard touchdown pass. The drive was set up thanks to Varela who intercepted El Campo quarterback Brock Rod forcing the first turnover on the year for the Gobbler defense.

Cuero’s second TD came from a 3-yard hard-nosed run by Sean Burks at the 3:14 mark making the score 14-0. The extra point came from senior William Carbonara who was 5/6 on the night.

After forcing back-to-back El Campo punts, the Gobblers got the ball again and only needed three plays before Notaro took it 61 yards to the end zone making it 21-0 with 8:28 left in the half. Notaro totaled 294 yards on the night, 131 on the ground and 163 through the air.

On the Gobblers next possession, senior Jeremiah Wilson punched it in from 12-yards out to make it 28-0 Gobblers. Wilson carried the ball six times for 60 yards averaging ten per carry. El Campo would find the scoreboard late in the first half with 1:18 on the clock when Rueben Owens took it 11 yards for the score.

That late score generated much needed momentum for the Ricebirds to start the second half. On the first play from scrimmage, the Ricebirds Hal Erwiz intercepted Notaro and took it 33 yards for a score. Just as El Campo thought they had something brewing, senior running back Tycen Williams took matters into his own hands on the Gobblers next offensive play. Williams, who led Cuero in rushing with 141 yards on 13 carries, took it 66 yards to turn the momentum back in the hands of the Mean Green all just 32 seconds into the second half.

The stingy Gobbler defense allowed just 46 second-half yards to the Ricebirds. On the night, they limited the Ricebirds to 2-11 on third down conversions, and 0-3 on fourth down.

The last touchdown on the night came on a 24-yard touchdown pass with Notaro connecting with Donavin Jones. The seven-play 54-yard drive that saw Notaro pass for his second T.D resulted in a blocked extra point. With 5:13 left in the third quarter, the Gobblers were well in command up 41-14. A safety on a bad snap that went out of the end zone was the last of the scoring capping a Gobbler win 43-14.

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