Orrick varsity 8-man football coach

Kirk Thacker has been in his share of gridiron shootouts.

But the Bearcats’ 96-80 Sept. 16 road win over Braymer/Breckenridge might’ve been the highest-scoring game he’s ever coached, counting his days of leading Hardin-Central’s program and then the Norborne Hardin-Central co-op.

“Obviously, both teams need to work on defense, that’s for sure,” Thacker chuckled Monday morning by phone.

The Bearcats (4-0 overall) had to play catchup to win the Central River Conference (CRC) interdivisional meeting. Trailing 22-12 in the first half, they “had to fight and claw back to get it to 50-50 at halftime,” Thacker said.

“I told the boys at halftime, … ‘It’s 0-0, at least,’” he said.

Two-point conversions were key to outlasting the Bobcats, according to Thacker. The Bearcats stopped the Bobcats’ on two-point attempts “several times,” he said.

“That was kind of the ballgame,” Thacker said.

A potent rushing attack didn’t hurt either.

Officially, the Bearcats tallied 535 y…