Warren County powers past NCHS-East
Published 12:00 am Saturday, September 17, 2005
CREEKSVILLE – It was a game with a little bit of everything, including a snake.
Sparked by a 208-yard, two-touchdown passing performance by Victor Hunt plus an opportunistic defense that turned three Northampton-East turnovers into touchdowns and recorded a safety, the visiting Eagles of Warren County overcame a copperhead moccasin slithering on their side of the field and pinned a 41-20 loss on the Rams here last night (Friday).
The loss dropped the Rams to 2-3 overall on the season.
Only down by six (14-8) at halftime, the Rams let this one slip away over the final 24 minutes of action.
Twice in the early stages of the second half, NCHS-East had the ball in great field position n once at midfield following a shanked punt and then at Warren's 47 yardline on the heels of returning a free kick thanks to Melvin Rogers scoring two points for the Rams when he dropped an Eagles runner in the endzone for a safety.
However, East failed to get anything going offensively in the second half. As a matter of fact, the Rams only had five net yards of offense when they launched their final drive of the game n a march that gained 63 yards until the game clock expired.
By that time, the Eagles had reeled off four touchdowns, three of which came in the fourth quarter where the visitors turned a narrow 20-10 lead into a 41-10 rout.
Warren County defender Darius Williams made it a 20-10 game just before the midway mark of the third quarter when he stepped in front of a Tim Gubitz pass and returned his theft 48 yards to paydirt.
Three plays into the fourth quarter, Hunt hit Eric Stevenson in full stride down the sideline for an 80-yard TD strike.
Warren County ended the onslaught by scoring two touchdowns over a span of 16 seconds.
The first came when Jeremy Sims capped a short 25-yard drive, set-up by Patrick Davis' 35-yard punt return, with a 7-yard TD run.
On the first play after the ensuing kick-off, East coughed-up the football and Warren defender Carl Moss picked-up the loose pigskin and rambled 19 yards to paydirt.
It was a NCHS-East turnover that set-up the Eagles first score. That came early in the second quarter when Stevenson recovered a Rams fumble at the East 21 yardline. Four plays later, on 4th-and-10, Hunt was flushed out of the pocket and dashed and darted his way to the endzone.
The Rams answered with their only touchdown of the night as NCHS-East took the ensuing kickoff and set sail on a five-play, 56-yard drive capped by Demontae Lassiter's 36-yard scoring run. Derreil Anderson ran in the conversion as the Rams grabbed an 8-6 lead with 6:51 left in the second quarter.
Warren County tied the score at 8-8 by recording a safety with 2:28 remaining before halftime.
The ensuing free kick sailed out of bounds, giving the Eagles possession at the East 40 yardline. From there it took the visitors only six plays to score, that coming on a 25-yard TD pass from Hunt to Stephen Davis and a 14-8 halftime lead for the guests.
NCHS-East finished with 159 yards of total offense, 154 of which came on the ground. Derreil Anderson led that effort with a game-high 73 rushing yards on 18 carries. Lassiter added 68 yards on 15 attempts before leaving late in the game with a twisted ankle.
Warren County amassed 352 total yards, led by Hunt's 11-of-21 passing performance for 208 yards.