Rural Retreat Pulls Out a Season-First Victory in Game Against Bland

     On September 6, the Rural Retreat Indians bagged their first win of the season at Bland County High School against the Bears. The Indians won the coin toss, and received the ball in the first quarter. In the first play of the game, the Indians fumbled the ball and turned the ball over to the Bears. The Indian defense was able to prevent the Bears from scoring, and the Indians got the ball back. However, the Bears later intercepted a pass, and the Indians turned the ball over again. The Bears then proceeded to score the first touchdown. Later in the quarter, the Indians scored a touchdown and tied Bland. Rural Retreat later intercepted the ball, and scored yet another touchdown. By the end of the first quarter, the score was fourteen to seven, with Rural Retreat in the lead.

     In the second quarter, both teams pushed to score another point, but they were evenly matched. Neither team made any progress in the second quarter. However, in the third quarter, Bland ran a seventy-yard touchdown in the kickoff. The Bears kicked successfully and tied the game. The Indians pushed to break the tie, and slowly pushed to the end zone. Rural Retreat pulled ahead with another touchdown, yet Bland scored seven more points with more than half the quarter to go. Toward the end of the third quarter, the Bears scored six more points and finished the quarter with a score of 21 Rural Retreat, 27 Bland.

     In the fourth quarter, Rural Retreat received the ball. About five minutes into the fourth quarter, the Indians scored a touchdown, but missed the extra point. The two teams were tied again. Later, Rural Retreat carelessly dropped the ball, but luckily recovered it before Bland. There was another close call when the Indians threw an interception near the end zone, but the Bears were unable to score. The score was tied 27 to 27, and the game went into overtime.

     Shortly into overtime, the Indians scored a touchdown and a field goal. The Bears were given one final chance to tie the game and score a touchdown, but needed the extra point to tie the game back up. The Bears' kick was no good, and the Indians had their first victory of the season, with the score of 33 Bears, 34 Indians.

     Overall, it was a messy game that was hard fought by both teams, but the Indians came out with the victory in the end. We are looking forward to more Indian victories; go Indians!

-Anna Brown and Dylan Crigger