An overtime battle that led to heartbreak for the Opp High School Bobcats and excitement for the Straughn High School Tigers as the Tigers took away a 36-30 win in the hard-fought game.

The Bobcats jumped out in the lead first after a snap went over the Tiger punter’s head and out of the end zone to make it 2-0, with 8:50 left to go in the first quarter.

At the start of the second quarter, the Bobcats struck again as Ashton Patel ran the ball into the end zone to make it 9-0.

The Tigers got on the board with 10:55 seconds to go in the second quarter when Adam Anderson threw a pass to Brantley Kelley to make the score 9-7.

After four downs and a punt, the Bobcats struck again when Anderson threw an interception and the Bobcats returned it all the way to the end zone to make the score 16-7, with eight minutes left in the half.

The Tigers then struck hard as Logan Olhava made a 76-yard run to the end zone to make it 16-14 with 3:50 left in the half.

Straughn didn’t waste any time to take the lead. With 31 seconds left in the half, Anderson connected with Kelley again and took the lead, 20-16.

The Tigers got their revenge on the safety from earlier in the game when the Bobcats’ punter fumbled the ball in the end zone and had to kick the ball out the back of the end zone, making the score 22-16.

After the Tigers received the ball again, Demetric Toney made a strong run and scored another touchdown and two point conversion to make the score 30-16.

The Bobcats finally got things rolling with 9:25 left in the third quarter when Dacarmeyen Hines got in the end zone, making the score 30-22 after a missed field goal.

Patel turned on the heat in the second half by running to score a touchdown and a two-point conversion to tie up the game with 7:55 left in the fourth quarter.

The Bobcats got the ball first in overtime and Patel moved the ball to the one-yard line but was stopped on fourth down when he tried to rush again.

Straughn did not start out overtime well after having a false start, but then Trey Strickland broke out from the pack and scored the winning touchdown.

“The boys deserved it,” Straughn head coach John Higgins said. “They worked hard and so did the assistant coaches.”

Higgins said that the key to last night’s win was making plays that winning teams make.

“We were making plays that winning teams make,” Higgins said. “I am so proud of our boys for coming back.”

Now the team will work on building on their success this week to carry over to next week, Higgins said.

“We are going to build on this success,” Higgins said. “We are going to rest though, it was a pretty physical game. I am just happy for our boys and for the Straughn community, they needed this.”

Opp head coach Brent Hill said that being out of rhythm and key injuries were the reasons for last night’s loss.

“Both teams played really well,” Hill said. “We got out of rhythm and now we have more key players injured, but we have to keep working and know that we have to play all four quarters to win the football game.”

The Tigers will host Slocomb next week and the Bobcats will host Houston Academy.