The struggles in 2009 for the Tomball Cougar football team continued Oct. 9 with their third consecutive loss to open the district season.

Taking on a winless Klein Oak Panther team, the Cougars were facing perhaps their best shot at earning their first win in 13-5A. In fact, it appeared that might be the case in the second quarter when the Cougars were the first to get on the board with a 25-yard field goal by Dillon Duarte.

But the Panthers would quickly take the wind out of the Cougar sails when quarterback Andy Wilson connected with Tory Waites on a 77-yard touchdown pass to make it 7-3.

Just three minutes later, Wilson threw his second touchdown pass of the night, this one to Michael Starr on a 60-yard scoring strike to put the Panthers up 13-6 after the extra-point failed.

Dillon connected on a 35-yard field goal as time expired in the first half, cutting the Klein Oak lead to 13-6.

The Cougar offense finally hit its stride in the third quarter when Derrick Lovick scored on an 11-yard touchdown run and quarterback Lance Ester found Jordan Leslie for a 39-yard touchdown pass to put Tomball up 20-13.

But the Tomball defense couldn’t keep the Panthers at bay. Nicky Baratti pounded in a 1-yard run for a touchdown, but the extra-point again failed, cutting the Cougar lead to just 1, 20-19.

Clinging to the slimmest of leads, the Cougar defense needed a fourth quarter shut out, or the offense needed a repeat performance of the third quarter to secure the victory.

But neither would come to fruition as Baratti scored his second touchdown of the night on a 21-yard run with 11:28 left to go in the game. For good measure, Baratti also converted the two-point conversion to make it 27-20.

The Panther defense stifled the Tomball offense in the final 11 minutes of the game and came away with the 27-20 win, their first victory on the season.

For the most part, the Cougar defense held the Panther offense in check. Baratti carried the ball 20 times, but gained only 67 total yards, 21 of which came on one carry.

The Tomball defense even forced three fumbles, which they recovered.

The Cougars took on Westfield Oct. 16. Results of that game were unavailable at press time. Their next contest is Oct. 23 when they host Spring DeKaney at 7:30 p.m.

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