A win is a win: Yoemen hold off late Troy surge to begin district at 1-0

At the end of the day, winning is the most important thing for a football team once district play gets underway, and that is exactly the way the Yoemen are going to look at Friday's 39-26 district opening win over Troy on Friday night. 

It was closer than any other Cameron and Troy game has been since the two entered district back in 2010, but at the end of the day Cameron is 1-0 in 10-3A play, which is something they did not accomplish last season.  

"We got the win and that's the most important thing," said Yoe coach Tommy Brashear.  "It's a win, but you almost feel upset in some ways because we feel like we had a lot of mis-opportunities and there were a lot of things that we could have done better and that we could have fixed.  The kids' effort was great and they are playing good as a team.  I feel like they are a little disappointed in themselves as well, but at the end of the day we accomplished our goal and we are 1-0 in district."

Cameron led 17-7 at the half and grew that lead to 31-13 in the third quarter, but it was the Trojans that scored twice to bring the game to one possession at 31-26 before a Braden Brashear to Kobe Young 54-yard touchdown pass sealed the deal late.  

With starting Yoe running-back Davion Bynaum siting out the game with a bruise, Nico Vargas stepped up to the plate in a big way, carrying the ball 24 times for 150 yards.  

"We worked all week in practice and were able to execute it tonight and I did what I had to do for the team," said Vargas.  "We just kept our composure and kept executing our keys and were coachable."

Cameron went up 31-13 in the third quarter thanks to Vargas' back-to-back touchdown runs of 4 yards and 17 yards.  The junior also had a score in the first for a total of three on the evening.  And yes, he played defense a majority of the game.  

"Nico is a good player and he plays his heart out," said Brashear.  "It means a lot to him and you can see it in how he plays.  He wants the ball in his hands and he wants to hit someone on defense.  He is a football player.  If their is a definition of a football player, Nico Vargas' name should be there."

Troy was able to crawl their way back into the game thanks to some nice blocking from the offensive line and the performance from running-back Zach Hrbacek, who finished the night with 30 carries for 283 yards.  

"He is a good runner," said Brashear on the performance.  "Their o-line does a good job and their coaches do a good job of getting good formations on their blocking schemes.  They are a good football team and we knew they were good at running the ball.  They found a formation that they liked and wore on us and started getting some bigger gains out of it."

Though Cameron did manage to put up 39 points and nearly 400 yards of total offense, Brashear felt there were plenty of missed opportunities that could have made the win more comfortable.  

"A lot of it came down to execution," Brashear said.  "Earlier in the first half, I felt like we left some points out there.  I felt like we did in the first half and the second half.  Some of it was running the wrong routes and sometimes we didn't hit the receiver.  We also had some missed assignments in blocking."

When they were executing, Cameron was difficult to stop.  In addition to the big night from Vargas on the ground, Young was equally as impressive catching the ball, coming in with 150 yards on 6 catches, while Kadrian Hammond caught 3 passes for 75 yards. 

Scoring

1st Quarter

Cameron: Nico Vargas 4-yard run - Ulices Cardona kick - 7-0 Yoe - 3:57

Troy: Dylan Yates 10-yard pass from Riley Cosper - Dylan Yates kick - 7-7 - 0:03

2nd Quarter

Cameron: Ulices Cardona 32-yard field goal - 10-7 Yoe - 9:28

Cameron: Kadrian Hammond 54-yard pass from Braden Brashear - Cardona kick - 17-7 Yoe - 0:55

3rd Quarter

Troy: Zach Hrbacek 75-yard run - kick failed - 17-13 Yoe - 9:48

Cameron: Vargas 4-yard run - Cardona kick - 24-13 Yoe - 7:59

Cameron: Vargas 17-yard run - Cardona kick - 31-13 Yoe - 6:06

Troy: Hrbacek 3-yard run - pass failed - 31-19 Yoe - 2:56

4th Quarter

Troy: Sam Jones 31-yard run - Yates kick - 31-26 Yoe - 8:00

Cameron: Young 54-yard pass from Brashear - Ki'Zirrius Holt reception - 39-26 Yoe - 6:28

Stats

Cameron Yoe

First Downs: 18

Rushing: 30-157 

Passing: 11-17-1, 242 yards

Punts: 1-33

Fumbles/Fumbles Lost: 0-0

Penalties: 4-36

Rushing: Nico Vargas, 24-158

Passing: Braden Brashear: 11-17-1, 242 yards

Receiving: Kobe Young, 6-150; Kadrian Hammond, 3-75

Troy

First Downs: 17

Rushing: 42-297

Passing: 6-12-4, 70 yards

Punts: 3-27.3

Fumbles/Fumbles Lost: 0

Penalties: 4-20

Rushing: Zach Hrbacek, 30-283

Passing: Riley Cosper, 4-6-0, 31 yards; Ben Pressley, 2-6-4, 19 yards

Receiving: Blake Popelka, 3-44