MADISON — The St. Joseph Bruins rallied in the fourth quarterto pull out a narrow 40-39 win over the Bogue Chitto Bobcats inFriday night football action.

Terrance Bailey scored on a 13-yard run with 2:22 left to playto put St. Joe up 40-39. Bogue Chitto got the ball back but wasunable to beat the clock and lost by one point.

“We had the ball and time just ran out,” said Bogue Chitto headcoach Garreth Sartin. “Our kids played great in the second half.These guys won’t quit.”

Two costly first-quarter turnovers by the Bobcats helped theBruins take a 14-0 lead.

Bogue Chitto came back in the second quarter, scoring a pair oftouchdowns by Donyea Dillon to cut the deficit to 28-14 at thehalf. Dillon scored on runs of 2 and 1-yards. Fred Tillman kicked 3out of 4 PATs on the night.

In the third quarter, the Bobcat defense shut down the Bruindefense as the BC offense took over to score 19 points and take a33-28 lead. Quarterback Seth Avants scored on a 7-yard run, Dillonscored on a 6-yard plunge and Dontae Ratcliff caught a 32-yard passfrom Avants. The try for two points failed and a PAT kickfailed.

Fourth quarter action saw St. Joe come back to take a 34-33 leadover Bogue Chitto. The Bobcats roared back and scored on a 16-yardrun by Dillion with 6:58 showing, for a 39-34 lead after failing onthe two-point conversion run.

Avants rushed the football 12 times for 98 yards and completed14 of 22 passes for 213 yards. Mario Addison led with 6 catches for95 yards. Ratcliff caught 5 passes for 63 yards. Keyouna Perkinsmade 3 catches for 55 yards.

Contributing to the Bobcat win with 18 rushes for 171 yards wasDillion. Finishing with 29 yards on 6 carries was Ratcliff.

Sartin praised the Bogue Chitto offensive line for theircontributions. They include left tackle Robert Lewis, left guardSeth Brown, center Nic Noworyta, right guard Josh Wallace and righttackle Fred Tillman.

Defensively, linebacker Scott Brown led BogueChitto with 10 tackles. Matthew Magee had 8 stops. Brian Robinsonrecovered a fumble and intercepted a pass.

Bogue Chitto travels to Stringer Friday for its first Region4-1A game of the season. The game begins at 7:30 p.m.