By Rob Patrick
In the muck and mire of Bryant Stadium, the Bryant White Hornets blocked a pair of quick kicks to set up one touchdown and produce another on the way to a 22-0 win over the Sheridan Stingers in eighth grade action on Thursday night.
With their punter Braden Lunday injured and a problem with the wet football on the deep snap for their only first-half punt attempt, the Stingers tried to go with short snaps to quarterback Joey Eggburn and quick kicks on their first two punting situations in the second half. Both kicks stayed low and were knocked down at the line of scrimmage. On the first, Bryant’s Luke Howard recovered at the 11. The next play, Greyson Giles charged into the end zone to break up a scoreless game.[more]
Giles then hauled in a screen pass from Wesley Akers to add a two-point conversion.
Early in the fourth quarter, Sheridan faced another punting situation at its 28 and again the low kick was knocked down at the line of scrimmage. This time, Howard scooped the ball up and sprinted 21 yards to score himself.
Akers kept on the two-point conversion with 6:02 left in the game.
Giles would later cap the scoring with a 63-yard touchdown run set up by Chase Tucker’s interception.
That pick was one of nine turnovers in the game between the two teams in a game marred by rain and a sloppy field. In all, there were 15 fumbles. Sheridan lost four of them, Bryant lost two. There were 16 snaps on which one of the team’s lost yardage.
The opening possessions for both teams ended with fumbles. Sheridan’s C.J. Roberts covered Bryant’s drop and Bryant’s Gray Orman recovered Sheridan’s.
After Bryant was forced to punt, the Stingers drove from the Hornets’ 48 to the 15 where a fourth-down play was stopped by Akers and Austin Miller.
Bryant drove from its 13 to the 45 with Akers picking up much of the yardage running from the quarterback position. But, on first-and-10 from the 45, Akers couldn’t get the handle on the snap and Sheridan’s Steven Williams recovered.
The Stingers couldn’t move the ball. Tyler Jeans made a stop for a loss for the Hornets then so did Jordan Jones as Eggburn recovered his own fumble. A play later, Lunday was back to punt and the ball rolled to him. He took off but was flagged down for a loss by Howard.
But Bryant’s subsequent drive ended with an interception by Cody Thompson at the Stingers’ 22 with less than a minute left in the half.
On the first series of the second half, Howard’s play on Eggburn who again had to scoop up a bad snap, cost 6 yards on third down, setting up the first blocked punt and the subsequent touchdown run by Giles.
Sheridan’s next possession ended in another fumble that Howard recovered. But the Hornets reached the Stingers 33 then Akers’ pass was intercepted by Eggburn.
On the last play of the third quarter, Sean Stubbs was tackled for a loss of 5 by Austin May and that led to the second blocked punt and Howard’s TD.
Sheridan made its best bid to score on the subsequent possession driving from its 41 to the Bryant 48. But May dropped Stubbs for a loss of 12 and two incomplete passes later, Tucker made the interception that set up Giles’ long TD run.
BRYANT WHITE 22, SHERIDAN 0
Score by quarters
Sheridan 0 0 0 0 — 0
BRYANT WHITE 0 0 8 14 — 22
Scoring summary
Third quarter
BRYANT WHITE — Giles 11 run (Giles pass from Akers), 3:46
Fourth quarter
BRYANT WHITE — Howard 21 blocked punt return (Akers run), 6:02
BRYANT WHITE — Giles 63 run (run failed), 2:17
Team stats
Sheridan Bryant White
First downs 4 6
Rushing-yds 28-(-1) 18-134
Passing 4-11-1 1-5-2
Passing-yds 23 0
Punts-avg. 2-(-8) 1-27.0
Fumbles-lost 11-4 4-2
Penalties-yds 5-35 5-30
INDIVIDUAL STATS
Rushing: BRYANT, Giles 10-100, Akers 7-35, Browning 1-(-1); SHERIDAN, Lunday 9-27, Roberts 3-16, White 1-3, Harris 1-0, Smith 1-0, Sparks 1-(-4), Stubbs 3-(-20), Eggburn 9-(-23).
Passing (C-A-I-Y): BRYANT, Akers 1-5-2-0; SHERIDAN, Eggburn 4-11-1-23.
Receiving: BRYANT, Miller 1-0; SHERIDAN, Thompson 1-8, Harris 1-6, Farrar 1-5, Stubbs 1-4.
