Forney, Texas - The Forney Jackrabbits finished their non-district schedule with a 36-17 loss to the Corsicana Tigers Friday night at City Bank Stadium.
The Jackrabbits home opener was also an early Homecoming for Jackrabbit Alumni. Alumni, current students, and friends saw Elijah Roberson and Rikki Sennikoff crowned as Homecoming King and Queen. The Homecoming Court also consisted of the following Honorees:
Freshman Dutchess – Hannah Syferd
Freshman Duke – Christopher Bedford
Sophomore Dutchess – Codie Homer
Sophomore Duke – Caleb Clay
Junior Dutchess – McKenzie Black
Junior Duke – Marcus Delgado
Senior Dutchesses – Camryn Rexrode, Morgan Ruiz, Megan Sipes, and Lexi Hawn
Senior Dukes – Marcus Harpole, Trent Taylor, Grant McNear, and Dillon Lewis
Once the action on the field got cranked up, Forney fans saw the Jackrabbits and Tigers trade several possessions in a feeling out process. The Jackrabbits opened the scoring with an impressive Rhett Coleman 38-yard field goal to give Forney a 3-0 lead with 4:36 left in the first quarter.
Forney struck again quickly with a Jake Guercia pass to a wide open Eastin Hargis for a 14-yard touchdown with 10:13 left to go in the second quarter. Keeping the momentum going, Luke Skipper replaced an injured Jake Guercia and completed a 14-yard pass to a falling down Jacob Gonzalez on the side of the end-zone for a 17-0 lead. At this point, it was clear the Jackrabbits seemed intent on erasing the bad memories from the previous week’s loss at Lovejoy. Jumping out to a 17-0 lead showed a lot of heart and a team that seemed to have corrected their offensive woes. Skipper then lead the Jackrabbits on another promising drive and had the offense inside the 10 yard line after running for 26 yards. Unfortunately, this is where things started going downhill for Forney.
The end of the 26 yard run by Skipper resulted in a fumble recovery by Corsicana. While the Jackrabbit defense built upon an impressive first half performance and stopped the Tiger drive to force a punt, they were quickly put back on the field after the ensuing punt bounced off Forney and was recovered by Corsicana. Tiger QB Devontay Bell then put the first Tiger points on the board with a 22-yard passing TD to Ralph Watts with only 2 seconds left in the first half. The score going into halftime was a 17-7 Jackrabbit lead.
Corsicana opened the second half right where they left off and put another touchdown on the board in under two minutes. The score stood at 17-14 with the Jackrabbits holding on to a tentative lead. After an exchange of punts, the big play of the night came from Tiger RB Lamontra Owens who ran right by the Forney defense for a 98 yard touchdown. This not only gave the Tigers the lead for the first time, it also seemed to deflate Forney. Owens had been bottled up in the first half and only accumulated 22 yards. The 98-yard scamper seemed to energize the running back who also rattled off an 82-yard TD in the middle of the fourth quarter to close out the scoring. Owens finished the game with a dominating 352 yards on 23 carries.
Game Notes: Forney ended up, for the second consecutive week, using three different quarterbacks in the game. Skipper went down with an injury in the fourth quarter, leading to Cory Marr making an appearance for the second straight game. Forney QB’s connected with 8 different receivers. Both teams fumbled four times, losing three each. Luke Skipper completed a TD pass in his third straight game.