It was a tale of two vastly different halves for the Oxford Wildcats on Friday night.
Coach Bud Rowley’s Cats showed a solid defense and good enough offense to open up a 10-0 halftime lead against U-D Jesuit.
But Jesuit owned the second half, outscoring Oxford 27-0 in the final 24 minutes to take a 27-10 victory.
Rowley put it simply: ‘They put an old-fashioned whoopin? on us in the second half.?
‘We had a nice first half and then didn’t come to play in the second half and they came out with 27 unanswered points.?
The Wildcats had 106 yards rushing in the opening 24 minutes and held Jesuit to 79. In the second half, U-D racked up 255 yards on the ground, led by running back George Winn, who finished with 248 yards and two TDs.
Oxford’s opening score came on a one-yard run by Joel Fortier. The play followed a long ground attack by the Wildcats. Don Pohl kicked the conversion to give Oxford a 7-0 advantage with 2:39 left in the first quarter.
Pohl later connected on a 37-yard field goal with only eight seconds left before halftime.
Jesuit wasted no time getting on the board in the second half, with Winn scoring on a 20-yard run with less than two minutes expired. Jesuit scored once more in the quarter before adding two more in the fourth.
Quarterback Jeremy Bukoski was Oxford’s leading rusher with 71 yards on 10 carries. He also recorded two quarterback sacks from his defensive back spot.
The loss put the Wildcat’s record a 2-1 but the team remains 2-0 in Flint Metro League play. The Jesuit contest is the only non-league game during the regular season for Oxford.
On Friday, the Wildcats will entertain Lapeer West at 6:55 p.m.
Oxford has not beaten West in the past three years. Both teams are 2-0 in Metro League play this season and 2-1 overall.