“Let’s hold them here boys,” was the goal, yelled by defensive end Rio Remund at the beginning of Friday’s football game in Arnold against the Hyannis Longhorns. And that is exactly what the South Loup defense did, holding Hyannis to a mere 96 offensive yards and one touchdown.

The Bobcats on the other hand, had 398 offensive yards and outscored, out defended, and out ran the Longhorns to win 54-6.

The Longhorns never had a chance in the first quarter, when the Bobcats held them behind their own 40-yard line for the entire quarter. The Bobcats scored first, when Trey Connell ran four yards for a touchdown with 8:42 left in the first quarter. Connell also scored the two point conversion, to bring the score 8-0.

Just 90 seconds later, Connell ran it in for another touchdown and then found Connor Paulson in the end zone to score 2 more points, to bring the score 16-0.

A stunning 20 seconds later, Lance Wooters recovered a fumble by Hyannis to give the Bobcats control of the ball again. The Longhorn defense forced the Bobcats to go to fourth down, but Connell again found his way into the end zone to add another six points and extend the Bobcats lead 22-0.

The Bobcats weren’t quite done yet in the first quarter, when Connell rocketed the ball to Cache Gracey to sneak into the end zone in the last 11 seconds and bring the score at the end of the quarter 28-0.

The second quarter started a bit slower with Hyannis grinding towards the Bobcats endzone, but a Longhorn fumble with 8:42 left in the half, recovered by Remund again gave the Bobcats control and another chance for Connell to run 54 yards into the end zone and extend the lead 34-0.

The Longhorns finally made it to midfield, before Lance Jones came in for a sack, got the ball to Connell who ran it 40 yards for another touchdown with 5:47 left in the half. The score is now 42-0 Bobcats.

But South Loup wasn’t done scoring. After a failed fourth down conversion attempt, the Longhorns kicked off to the Bobcats and Connell again found himself in the end zone to bring the score 50-0 and start a continuously running clock for the rest of the game.

The Bobcat defense energized from halftime, continued to stop the Longhorns all throughout the third-quarter. A fumble recovery by Hyannis gave them an opportunity to score, but Remund was there with a sack to give the ball back to the Bobcats and allow Conner Paulsen to score with 6:26 remaining. The score was now 54-0.

The bobcat underclassmen took the field during the third quarter, and Dawson Mason, Kaden Paulsen, and Dylan Pandorf all provided key stoppages for the Bobcats.

The lone Hyannis touchdown came during the fourth quarter, with 5:43 left in the game. Neither team scored again after this, making the final score 54 to 6.

For the offense, Connell had 165 rushing yards and 62 passing yards. Conner Paulsen followed with 63 yards rushing, and Pandorf for 37 yards passing.

With senior Clay Witthuhn on the injured list for this week, the team really stepped up to fill his role. Jamie Tickle saw playing time at safety, and Remund stepped up on the defense and led with seven tackles including two sacks, and Ethan Furne followed with six tackles.

Penalties were high in this game though, with each team tallying six for 50 yards on each side.

The Bobcats JV were slated to play Mullen on Monday, but due to low numbers that game was canceled. On Friday they will travel to Mullen for a varsity competition that begins at 7 p.m.