Turpin turns back Bombers

    It’s a long way to Turpin.  It’s an even longer way home as the Bombers remained winless on the season with a 44-21 loss to Class A’s No. 1 ranked Cardinals.

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    After struggling through their first two games, the Bombers finally found their offense as Big Red rolled up 295 total yards, 14 first downs, and three touchdowns on a very tough Turpin defense.  Quarterback Willie Lane led all rushers with 131 yards on 18 carries while running back Josh Hughes tallied 86 yards on just six carries as the Bombers easily had their best offensive output of the season.
    Turpin’s offense put up similar numbers to that of the Bombers totaling 251 yards and 14 first downs.  Travis Cole led the Cardinals’ offense with 124 yards rushing on 28 carries while Warren Headrick carried 18 times for 106 yards.
    Once again special teams proved to be the difference in the game as the Bomber punt team allowed the Cardinals excellent field position throughout the game.  Case in point, of Turpin’s six touchdown drives, five started in Bomber territory with three starting inside the Bombers’ 23-yard line.
    “They’ve got a real good team, but mistakes in the kicking game continued to kill us.” Bomber coach Todd Hudson said, “We gave them good field position all night and part of that was because of the kicking game.”
    The Bombers were forced to punt on their first three possessions.  All three resulted in Turpin touchdowns as the Bombers spotted the Cardinals a 22-0 lead early in the game.
    Turpin’s first scoring drive started at the Bomber 49-yard line and ended as Headrick scored from one yard out.  Headrick also tacked on the two-point conversion giving the Cardinals an 8-0 lead.
    A 28-yard Headrick run extended the Cardinals’s lead to 14-0 after a bad snap on a Bomber punt gave Turpin the ball at the Bomber 23-yard line.
    The Cardinals’ next possession started at the Bomber 17 after a Mike Wermeister 37-yard punt return.  It took Turpin five plays to score as Cole finished the drive with a 5-yard TD run.  Headrick again added the two-pointer, 22-0.
    The Bombers would answer on their next possession as they marched 75 yards in just six plays.  Lane hit Justin Garza for 12 yards to open the series.  Hughes followed by taking a pitch from Lane around the right side for a 32-yard gain.  A facemask penalty against Turpin tacked on another 15 yards to Hughes’ run before Gary Perry bowled his way up the middle for nine yards to the Turpin five-yard line.  Two plays later, Justin Billy went around the left side for the score.  Billy then added the two-point conversion cutting the Cardinals’ lead to 14, 22-8.
    Turpin answered with their only legit drive of the night, a 13-play, 75-yard drive capped by a 5-yard Cole run giving the Cardinals a 28-8 halftime lead.
    The Bombers came out scrapping in the second half as they marched 72 yards to the endzone to open the third.  Lane optioned up the middle for 11 yards, and Perry followed with a six-yard gain.  Lane spun his way out of several tackles for another 11-yard gain, and Billy followed with a 10-yard run.  After Lane dropped back to pass but was forced to scramble for 12 yards, Hughes broke a tackle and faked another defender out of his shoes on his way to a 29-yard TD run.  Justin Garza added the PAT cutting the Turpin lead to 13, 28-15.
    That was as close as the Bombers would get as miscues in the punting game helped Turpin to two more scores.  The first came on a one-yard Cole run after a Bomber punt went for negative yardage and was downed on the Bomber one-yard line.  The second came after a 39-yard Cole punt return gave the Cardinals the ball in Bomber territory again.  Turpin chewed up over 5:00 off of the clock before Cole scored on a 10-yard run, 44-15.
    The Bombers didn’t quit as they added another score on a Billy 2-yard run with :12 left in the game, 44-21.
    “It just wasn’t our night.”  Hudson added, “I think we played hard.  I think we had some kids that laid it all on the line tonight and I think they played their hearts out.  The effort was good, but we just didn’t have enough good things go our way.”
    The real season begins this week, and hopefully things will go the Bombers’ way as they begin district play on Friday when they travel to Hobart for the district opener.