Cats clinch first district win over Clay

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SPORTS

The Baker County Press

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SEPTEMBER 27, 2012 CONTACT US By phone at 904.259.2400 or by fax at 904.259.6502. You can stop by our office located at 104 S. Fifth Street, Macclenny, FL or mail your submission to PO Box 598, Macclenny, FL 32063. We are available online at www.bakercountypress.com

Cats clinch first district win over Clay

Dominance in ground game

Opponents results in first district games

BOB GERARD | SPORTS The Baker High varsity football Wildcats notched a big victory on the road Friday, beating Clay County 34-19 in the opening game of district play. The victory avenges a one-point loss at home to the Blue Devils last season that helped keep BCHS from post-season play. A large contingent of the Wildcat faithful made the trip to Green Cove Springs to see the Cats score first on a 31-yard run by quarterback Corey Lawler. He had a breakout game for the Wildcats, running the ball for 184 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries. He threw for a third touchdown. Lawler’s metamorphosis into a running quarterback doesn’t come as a surprise for fans of Wildcat football. He has been successful running the ball from the quarterback spot at spells this season and last, but was not as dominating as on Friday night. Clay had a hard time stopping Lawler, and that opened up other aspects of the offense. Falon Lee rushed twelve times for 112 yards as BCHS piled up over 300 yards on the ground. Clay tied the game up on its next possession as freshman quarterback Jake Smith hit Wes Weeks on a 69-yard pass play. The Smith/Weeks connection troubled BCHS all game long. Neither team had much success with extra points and the contest was knotted at 6-6. BCHS caught a break on Clay’s next possession as Blayne Merchant picked off Smith after CeCe Jefferson forced a quick pass. The Cats set up shop at the Blue Devil 5-yard line and Lawler bulled his way up the middle for his second touchdown of the night and a 12-6 lead. The Wildcats extended their lead to 20-6 early in the second quarter as Lawler found Drew Rogers on a 54-yard pass play for a touchdown. Lee ran in the two point conversion. It looked as if the game might turn into a runaway as Falon Lee rambled 61 yards on the next BCHS possession down to the Clay six. Lee was not to be denied on the next play as he ran the ball in for the score. To its credit, Clay was not about to lie down and die. Smith connected with Weeks three times as the Devils drove down the field. Smith and Weeks hooked up on 14-yard scoring pass and catch to narrow the gap to 26-12 at the half. The game got more interesting early in the third quarter after a fumble on a punt return allowed the Blue Devils to set up shop in Wildcat territory at the 41-yard line. Smith found his favorite receiver Weeks at the 17-yard line and on the next play Bilal Ally took the ball in for the score to close the gap to 26-19. The game stayed agonizingly close through the remainder of the second half as both teams poked and prodded, only to be stymied by costly penal-

BOB GERARD | SPORTS

PHOTOS BY JUD JOHNSON

Above, Corey Lawler leaps across the line for yardage. Below at right, No. 11 Marquis Williams backs up John Kinney on the tackle.

ties. The Cats got as close as the Clay 14 early in the fourth quarter but were stopped by a penalty and four incompletions. Clay got inside the Wildcat 35 but three incompletions and a penalty halted the drive. The breakthrough came late in the fourth period on the final Wildcat possession of the game. Lawler cracked a 20-yard run into Clay territory at the 35, breaking tackles as he went. Lee ran the ball down to the 10 and four plays later Mike Boone skirted around the end and in for a score. CeCe Jefferson punched in the conversion to give the Wildcats a comfortable win. The Cats racked up 373 yards of total offense with 306 rushing yards on 34 carries and 67 through the air. Defensively they shut down the Blue Devil running attack, limiting them to just 34

Coach reacts to Clay Co. win BOB GERARD | SPORTS The Wildcats got a big win this past Friday in their first district game on the road in Green Cove Springs against Clay County. This week they will face off against Palatka in another important road game. Here’s a look at how Coach Ryan Sulkowski assesses the games. Press: A big district win for the Cats. What kind of momentum does a win over a team that beat you by one point last season give you going into the “meat” of the season? Coach: Honestly, I don’t consider it to be momentum, but it does give our guys some confidence in that we are doing the right things as a football program. Friday night was a great measuring stick for us. We executed the game plan and the kids showed that they can handle the excitement of winning a close game. Our team that showed up in the first half was fun to watch and if we can find a way to play like that each week, this will be a fun season! Press: Wes Weeks was the “go to guy” for the Blue Devils. It looks like he got away with one on the sidelines on Friday that could/should have seen him ejected from the game. Was it a punch or a shove? Coach: Hard to say. I thought Wes had a great game and is a very good football player. You know, in the heat of an intense game, tempers fly and that’s exactly what happened. You have kids who work all week on the Friday night opponent and sometimes the energy is hard to contain. As far as I’m concerned it was two kids battling it out on the football field trying to do their best for their teams. Press: Natavian Griffin certainly showed up in a big way against Clay. Is his progression something that you have been watching day-to-day in practice or did his performance on Friday surprise you? Coach: As a staff we all knew that Natavian was capable of having the type of game he did Friday night. Our game plan defensively set the stage for guys like him to be successful in stopping the strong Clay running attack. He along with the other defenders did a great job in holding Clay to 34 yards on 24 carries. You cannot ask for anything more than that.

Press: What can be done to cut down on the number of penalties during the course of the game? Coach: Penalties happen; that’s part of football. My belief and the belief of this staff is that we can handle penalties when a kid is in position or by being overly aggressive. It is those lack of concentration penalties (i.e. off sides, false starts, etc.) that just eat you up. I think our kids are getting better at penalties and we will continue to improve as the season progresses. Press: With the importance of extra points and field goals, is there a reason we don’t designate a kicker in the off-season so they’ll have nine months of work? Coach: Wish I could say it was just that easy. We have kids working all year on kicking and unless you are just a natural kicker or put countless hours in, it is hard to do. We have kind of stumbled onto something with two-point conversions as well. We were 2 of 5 on two-point conversions, giving us 4 points after touchdowns. We just felt that we might not have made 4 of 5 PATs if we had attempted them. The result worked out in our favor this game. (Former AD Bobby Harrison was always of the opinion that you broke even running two point conversions as opposed to PATs). Press: Corey Lawler showed good speed and endurance in the Clay win. Will his legs continue to develop into a big part of the offense or was that just something that Clay was giving you? Coach: Corey had a gutty performance on Friday night. I was proud of not only him, but all of our offensive skill guys. We stressed being unselfish all week. Our game plan dictated that Corey would be running the ball a good bit and Falon understood that. No different at receiver when we told those kids that we might not throw the ball more than 10 times because we wanted to produce a power running attack against Clay. All of our kids were unselfish and we won. As a coach, that’s what you strive for. Each week there may be a different player who excels offensively, but as long as the kids take the attitude they had Friday into each game plan, we will be just fine.

yards rushing. Natavian Griffin had a career game with eight tackles and CeCe Jefferson, Jon Kinney, Brody Crews, Rashodd Hadley and the Wildcat line continued to impress. But statistics are only part of the story. The bigger picture is going on the road and collecting a first district win of the season. The Cats are still defining who they are after the opening game loss to Columbia. This game, particularly the way they secured it at the end, should go a long way to setting them up for the meat of the season. The Wildcats are on the road again this week against the Palatka Panthers, who will be looking to rebound after a heartbreaking on point loss to Creekside in their district opener.

The Wildcat varsity football team snatched a big win to start their district chase in a positive way. Let’s look at how the opposition fared in the first weekend of district play. • The Cats’ next opponent Palatka lost a 14-13 heartbreaker to Creekside, whose quarterback Ja’Twan Honor fueled most of the offense, rushing for 111 yards and passing for 92. He had 145 yards rushing and both touchdowns for Palatka. A missed extra point was the difference in the game. • The Bolles Bulldogs went down to defeat to a public school for the first time in a long while, falling to Fleming Island 33-28. Bolles was in position to get a comeback win with four minutes on the clock, but quarterback Colby Peters fumbled and Fleming Island got the ball. • The Columbia Tigers nipped Oakleaf 1913 despite an impressive aerial game from the Knights. Columbia blocked a punt and ran it in for a touchdown to secure the win. • John Wolford threw four touchdown passes as Bishop Kenny shut out Paxon 32-0. Moronkie Tapper caught seven passes for 132 yards receiving and 3 touchdowns and Cameron Singletary ran for 104 yards. • Forrest continued to impress with a 29-12 win over Terry Parker. The 3-1 Rebels got four turnovers, one of which was returned for a 76 yard touchdown and the defense also forced a safety in the victory. • Bradford defeated Hamilton County 40-24. • Though the Cats don’t play Yulee, it is interesting to point out that Yulee running back Derrick Henry broke the state single game rushing record with 502 yards versus Jackson.