Basile holds on against East Beauregard, improves to 2-1 in league competition

BASILE -- The Basile Bearcats jumped out to a 20-0 lead after two quarters of play, but had to hold on in the second half for a 20-13 homecoming win over the East Beauregard Trojans Friday night.
The win improved Basile to 4-2 on the season and 3-1 in District 4-1 play. The Bearcats will travel to Merryville this Friday night for a district showdown with the Panthers.
Basile got off to a tremendous start in the first quarter of play, scoring two touchdowns. The first, a four yard run from Isaiah Ceasar was finished off by a Jose Palacios extra point, giving the Bearcats a 7-0 lead with less than three minutes gone in the quarter.
Basile added to their lead late in the period on another Ceasar touchdown run, this time from 12 yards out. The extra point was blocked, however the Bearcats now owned a 13-0 advantage with 1:56 left to go in the initial quarter.
The game moved back and forth throughout the second quarter until Basile was able to get back on the board right before half. With 1:01 to go in the second quarter, Ceasar scored his third touchdown of the game when he slid in from five yards out. The Palcios’ extra point was good allowing the Bearcats to go into the locker room with a commanding 20-0 lead.
With the game seemingly in the hands of Basile, the Trojans came out in the second half and put a scare in the Bearcat faithful. East Beauregard was finally able to mount a serious drive late in the third quarter and picked up their first points of the night when Jacob Gimnich powered his way in from three yards out. The two-point pass from Noah Gill to Gimnich was good, and, with 3:29 to go in the period, East Beauregard had cut the lead down to 20-8.
The two teams were unable to get much accomplished for the rest of the third quarter and most of the fourth quarter. Nevertheless, the Trojans had enough left in them to mount one last drive.
With 2:04 remaining in the contest, East Beauregard’s Garrett Cooley plunged in from the two yard line to cut deeper into the Basile lead. The two-point run was stopped by the Bearcat defense making it a 20-14 lead with just over two minutes to play in the contest.
From that point on, Basile retained possession long enough to run the clock out and pick up the win.
Ceasar led the way for the Bearcats on offense, rushing for 148 yards on 16 carries and three touchdowns. Izzy Drehemsis added 70 yards on 10 rushes, while Logan David picked up 51 yards.