THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Odessa High School Athletics

For all the progress the Frenship Tigers had made from a winless 2017 campaign, there were still goals out there they wanted to accomplish but were starting to slip away. Making the playoffs was chief among those goals, but with two losses in District 2-6A play, a win Friday night against fellow district winless team Odessa was pretty much a necessity. But instead of coming out with their best effort of the year with what was on the line, the Tigers suffered through a miserable first half that didn’t get much better in the second half as Odessa dominated on all three sides of the ball for a 56-10 win at Peoples Bank Stadium. “I think one of the things that I was most disappointed with tonight is, I don’t know that we handled adversity very well at all,” Frenship head coach Jay Northcutt said. “I thought we’d made some progress in, but I think we took a few steps back this week. That’s an area we’ve really got to focus on is just being able to handle the adversity when bad things happen.” The decisive first half was everything the Tigers (3-5, 0-3 in 2-6A) couldn’t afford to do and win the game. They gave up two special teams touchdowns — a 97-yard opening kickoff return by Charles McClure and a 70-yard punt return by Julian Galindo, turned the ball over four times, gave up four sacks — all by linebacker Cade Mendoza — and watched starting quarterback Jess Hoel, who threw three interceptions, leave the field late in the second quarter cradling his right arm with an elbow injury. Northcutt said the severity of Hoel’s injury and how long he might be out won’t be known until it is examined this weekend. Frenship would have to turn to third-string quarterback, sophomore Jake Sherrard, after losing both Hoel and starter Austin Phillips (foot) to injury. Sherrard played the second half but didn’t have any more success than Hoel did in the first half. Frenship’s miscues kept its offense from finding a rhythm, managing just 109 yards in the first two periods. Odessa had 186, which is somewhat skewed by the fact that two of the Bronchos’ five touchdowns came in the kicking game. Odessa manhandled the Tigers along both the offensive and defensive lines, finishing with 372 total yards off offense and holding Frenship to 218 total yards while forcing six total turnovers. “Great credit to our coaching staff,” said Odessa head coach and former Estacado head coach Danny Servance. “They did a great job of getting our kids ready and coming up with a good game plan, and then our kids did a great job of executing it.” PLAYER OF THE GAME Charles McClure, DB, Odessa McClure started off the game by returning the opening kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown, and he didn’t slow down from there. He also picked off two passes, one in the end zone, and punted four times for a 37.5-yard average. NOTABLE Despite the loss, Frenship still leads the all-time series against Odessa, 4-3, and the Bronchos have won two in a row in the series ... According to Frenship records, Frenship has now not won a Week 8 game at home since 2012, a 70-34 win over Hereford, and is 12-20 all time at home in the eighth week of the season. WHAT’S NEXT Both teams are on the road next week. Odessa travels to Amarillo to take on Tascosa while Frenship heads to Odessa to face District 2-6A co-leader Permian.

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Odessa High School Athletics

TIGERS FALL TO BRONCHOS

GEORGE WATSON

Lubbock Online | 10/28/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: Justin Rex