The Lapeer East Eagles ended Oxford’s hopes for an undefeated season last week with a 42-24 thumping.
The win dampened the Wildcats? homecoming and means the team must win its final two games of the season in order to garner at least a share of the Flint Metro League title.
The Cats will travel to Swartz Creek this Friday and will host Linden the following Friday. Linden, 7-0, will play Lapeer West this week.
Even though Lapeer East is only 3-3 in the Metro League, the game saw the emergence of a new quarterback who accounted for 329 all-purpose yards and kept the Wildcats? defense on its heels.
Austin Aubert was starting his first game for the Eagles. The week before he played the second half and nearly brought East back to defeat rival Lapeer West.
Aubert was 17-for-25 passing for 254 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran 17 times for 75 yards and scored one TD.
East held a 21-10 lead at halftime but Oxford scored twice in the third quarter to take a 24-21 lead.
Oxford QB Nick Tombrella hit Joel Fortier on a 69-yard TD pass and Zach Line added the go-ahead score on a one-yard run in the third quarter.
The fourth quarter belonged to East as they scored three times while the Cats could not find the endzone.
Fortier led the Cats in rushing with 122 yards on 10 carries. Line rushed for 106 yards on 27 carries and also had 12 solo tackles and six assisted tackles for Oxford.