The Quitman offense came to life and the defense held its own against high scoring Beckville before the Bulldogs finally fell to the undefeated Bearcats 43-11 at Bud Moody Stadium.

The Bulldogs held their own against the Bearcats, who came into the game as a 45 point favorite. Quitman piled up 275 offensive yards. Quarterback Jake Farmer gained 94 rushing yards, including a 56 yard touchdown run, and Kayden White had 86 yards on the ground. A.J. Dunn added another 50 yards and Wacey Warren ploughed his way for 40 more.

“We had our chances, but we couldn’t get the ball in the end zone. I am very proud of this team. That was a really good team we played out there and our kids got after it,” Coach John Woodard said. “I saw a lot of good things out there from our team. We had good production and sustained some drives.”

Beckville got two first quarter scores, but only had to drive 22 yards and 18 yards to get those scores, putting them up 13-0. The Bulldogs had snapping and punting problems again giving the Bearcats short distances to the goal line. Beckville scored on 23 yard pass and run play with Trey Lindsey tossing to Austin Roys for the score.

That was followed by an 18 yard run by Ja’von Lewis with 5:39 left in the quarter. In the second stanza, Beckville stretched their lead to 21-0 on a 19 yard pass play with just over seven minutes to go in the half.

The Bulldogs came right back on tough runs of by Warren, White and Dunn to drive for four first downs, but a fumble gave the ball back to Beckville. But this time, Bulldog Brad Davenport got the ball right back on a hard hit and recovery of fumble in Bearcat territory.

The Bulldogs drove to the Bearcat 17 yard line and with 34 seconds to go in the half, Santos Marua booted a 34 yard field goal to make it a 21-3 game going into intermission.

Beckville scored at the 10 minute mark of the third quarter to take a 28-3 lead, but the undaunted Bulldogs marched back downfield and Jake Farmer ripped off his 56 yard run for a score. The two point conversion was good and the score stood 28-11.

Beckville drove 48 yards for their next score with Lewis getting the final 18 yards making it a 34-11 score. Quitman came right back and drove from their own 35 yard line to the Bearcat 16 before losing the ball on a fumble. Instead of running the clock out, Beckville took to the air and got one more score with 15 seconds left in the game.

“We came in with a game plan. We held on to the ball and we gave ourselves a chance to be in the ballgame. We had to speed the game back up in the fourth quarter. Our line did a great job in the trenches and our backs ran hard and I thought our defense was outstanding,” Woodard said. “We were a whole lot better than we were at Eustace. We played some of our best football. There were so many good things on the field. There was a lot of unselfish kids out there, doing what they could to help the team. We had kids going both ways and giving it all they had.”

Things don’t get easier as high-flying Harmony comes to town for homecoming. This will be the last preseason game before district play begins at home against Winnsboro Sept. 23.

Harmony comes into this week’s contest with a 3-0 slate. The Eagles are coming off a 60-20 win over Scurry-Rosser last week. Harmony had defeated defending state champion Waskom 62-26 two weeks ago.

Harmony brings back 10 on offense and six on defense led by three year starting quarterback Spencer Seahorn who threw for almost 1,200 yards last year. In the win over Scurry-Rosser, Nick Hoelscher scored three times on the ground including runs of 24, 47 and 7 yards.

“Coach Russell (Tim) and his crew have done such a great job at Harmony. They are very solid and they have some really quick backs,” Woodard said. “They like to play at a fast pace and we will have to slow them down.”

It is homecoming week in Quitman. Homecoming activities will be going on during the week with the parade and pep rally on the square Friday afternoon with the crowning of the 2016 Homecoming Queen set for a 7 p.m. ceremony before the 7:30 p.m. kick-off.