By Art Lawler Cedar Creek Pilot

EUSTACE — Not even The Boneyard could bring victory to the luckless Dogs Friday night.

Head Coach Doug Wendel’s team, arguably the most exciting “three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust” football team in the nation, fought a more talented Dallas Life Oak Cliff team off its feet and into overtime.

But when push came to shove, the Lions had just enough to keep Eustace out of the end zone in overtime to capture a 41-35 victory, leaving Wendel’s best team in three years at 0-2.

The Lions’ defense dictated that the Dogs would have to beat them with senior quarterback Chris Compton, which he came very close to doing.

In the latter part of this contest when the Lions began ganging up on Compton, fullback Shawn Baldwin began returning to last year’s form following a serious knee injury.

But in overtime with the ball on the Life Oak 10, Compton ran three straight times, and the Lions held him to just four yards.

Wendel said Compton was running the option each time, which is based on taking what a defense gives.

The Lions had taken running back Trevan Johnson out of most of the contest, which helped Compton to rush 24 times for 169 yards and four touchdowns.

In the game’s final set of downs, after Baldwin had begun hurting the Lions, Life Oak keyed on him and it was back on Compton’s shoulders.

But this time they held him to five yards in three plays. The game’s only real controversy came on the game’s final play.

Compton tried to hit Jo Jo Bradburn six yards deep in the end zone. A defender made contact with him and he stumbled to the ground as the ball fell harmlessly to the ground.

The Dogs argued for a flag, but none was forthcoming and that was the ball game.

“I had a lot of fun,” Wendel said. “Our kids did a great job tonight, but we just haven’t been able to close the deal yet.”

But Wendel told his frustrated bunch to keep trying to get better, and that if they played with as much intensity as they did Friday night, they’d be a playoff team at the end of the year.

The Dogs had beautiful stats in their running game. Not only did Compton have 169, but Baldwin had 111 on 14 carries.

Overall, Eustace rushed for a whopping 353 yards on 51 running plays. The passing game wasn’t so pretty. The Dogs completed 1 of 5, and that one was off the arm of Johnson, good for 35 yards.

The problem was the defense. Wendel told his Dogs on “D” they’re going to have to start communicating with one another much better in the coming weeks.

The game was tied at 35-35 at the end of regulation, thanks to a three-yard Baldwin touchdown on fourth down with 3:58 left.

The Dogs and Lion coaches got into a poker game, calling three straight time outs with the Lions on the Dogs 16, facing fourth and 10 with 21 seconds to go.

Wendel won that round when the Lions threw incomplete in the end zone, leaving the game tied at the end of regulation.

Life Oak won it in OT with a nine-yard-touchdown pass.