PHOTOS BY CHERI JAY-WIENECKE Dalton Parsons makes a run for it in the Hornets' loss to stateranked Abbott last week. At the beginning of the football season, expectations were low for the Lometa Hornets.

One year after losing nine seniors, including six all-district first team members from a squad that went 5-4, it was assumed the Hornets would struggle to be competitive.

But there is an old saying about assuming, and it once again rang true.

Composed of a relatively young and inexperienced group, the Hornets surpassed the 2008 team by going 8-2 through the regular sea- son before having their unexpected run ended last week in Troy, where Abbott advanced from the regional round with a 64-16 victory.

Despite failing to win a playoff game for the fourth consecutive year, head coach Wendell Bradley has no regrets.

“I told them after the ball game that this was probably one of my most rewarding seasons,” the coach said. “When you’ve got a great team, your main job is to get the bus [to the game], stay out of their way and let them play. There’s not a whole lot of coaching there.

Charlie Wagner (2) struggles to keep a grip on the football in the Hornets' loss last week. “We took a group of guys and had to really work to fit people together.”

While No. 6 Abbott is a dominating team deserving of its lofty ranking, the Hornets’ playoff game plan was basically thrown out the window before the first snap as drizzly weather prevented Lometa from attacking through the air.

“We’d try to run a dry ball in, and by the time it got in and put on the ground and snapped and got back to our [quarterback], it would have a layer of water on it,” Bradley said. “The ball was just too wet to throw. “We had to scramble [after that].”

Without a formidable running game to fall back on, the Hornets’ offense struggled, and the defense could not keep the Panthers out of the end zone despite playing a sound game, according to Bradley.

Midway through the second quarter, the score got out of hand, and the game was ended via the mercy rule in the third period.

Now, with its memorable season over, the so-called problems that plagued Lometa throughout the year become an advantage as a majority of the roster will return next year with valuable experiences under their belts.

“That was the plan all along,” Bradley said. “[We wanted] to work those guys and get them experience.”

It just so happened that in the process, they altered expectations.