Locked in a 14-14 tie midway through the third quarter on Friday at Letcher Central, the Bell County Bobcats needed a big play.
Junior tailback Kaleb Miller delivered, connecting with Joseph Brigmon on a halfback pass covering 77 yards for the go-ahead touchdown. Blake Burnett passed to Blake Evans for the two-point conversion.
“They were coming downhill at us pretty hard,” Bell County coach Dudley Hilton said. “We thought we’d throw one in there. We made a good fake and a good throw. It was wide open.”
Bell put the game away with a drive covering nine minutes in the fourth quarter that ended with Burnett’s 2-yard TD run to give the Bobcats a 30-14 win.
Miller scored on a 6-yard run in the first quarter and Evans followed with a two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead.
A 3-yard run by Miller pushed the lead to 14-0, but Letcher deficit cut the deficit to 14-8 at halftime with a 2-yard TD run and a two-point conversion.
Letcher pulled even in third quarter before Bell regained control.
“They had a lot of returning players with about seven seniors on each side of the ball, so we knew it was a senior ballclub. We knew they would play hard,” Hilton said.
Miller ran for 101 yards on 28 carries to lead the Bobcats’ offense. Burnett completed three of six passes for 25 yards and added 49 yards rushing on three carries. James Neal ran for 71 yards on 10 carries.
Logan Greene led the Bell defense with 12 tackles. Joshua Owens and Evans added six each. Burnett, Evans and Cayden Huff each had interceptions.
“We didn’t have any turnovers and had several interceptions,” Hilton said. “I thought we did pretty well offensively also.”
Bell County (2-1) returns to action Friday at home against Perry Central. Letcher Central (1-2) travels to Hazard on Friday.