‘Slick’ win
Published 10:22 am Monday, October 10, 2016
- As a steady rain fell on Hertford County Stadium on Thursday night, Bertie High School quarterback Anron Bond (#7) puts his offense in motion. Unfortunately for the Falcons, their offense sputtered on a wet night, turning the ball over eight times and the Bears feasted on those miscues to rout their rivals, 47-6. | Photo by Dynamic Photo / William Anthony
AHOSKIE – The rain fell, the turf was slick, and the beat went on.
For the 11th consecutive time, Hertford County defeated their arch rival Bertie High School here Thursday night, this time around feasting on eight turnovers by the guests en route to a 47-6 rout of the Falcons.
The game was moved from its original Friday date due to the threat of Hurricane Matthew.
Six of the Bears seven scoring possessions came after Bertie turnovers. HCHS, using great field position due to those miscues, only started two offensive drives in their territory all night.
HCHS junior running back Kyeem Perry (#32) attempts to slip through the grasp of Bertie defender Dajour Kemer during Thursday night’s battle in Ahoskie. Perry rushed for a game high 144 yards and scored two touchdowns in the 47-6 win.
Meanwhile, Bertie’s rash of miscues caused the Falcons to never get their rugged ground game untracked, one that played extremely well last week in a win over previously undefeated Williamston Riverside. Against the Bears, Bertie suffered seven lost fumbles and threw one interception. They finished the game with only 49 yards of total offense.
On the other side of the coin, the Bears simply took what their guests gift-wrapped in the form of mistakes.
HCHS jumped out to a 14-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. There, Kyeem Perry (who torched Bertie all night with 144 rushing yards on 15 carries) scored on a four-yard run. Lance Hunter’s 12-yard TD pass to Zion Riddick accounted for the other early score with Noah Parker adding both PAT’s.
Each of those first quarter touchdowns followed fumble recoveries by the HCHS defense – one each by Greg Harrell and Alex Maxbauer. For the night, Maxbauer pulled off an amazing feat by recovering a total of four fumbles.
Hertford County padded its lead to 34-0 at halftime thanks to scoring a trio of touchdowns in the second quarter.
Dunyasha Porter’s 50-yard return for a touchdown got the Bears rolling in the second stanza. The other two TDs in the period both came on the ground – a three-yard run by Jaree Pitt and Perry’s 12-yard scamper to paydirt. Both of those rushing touchdowns came after the HCHS defense pounced on Bertie fumbles – one each by Maxbauer and Tristan Williams.
Parker booted two of the three PATs.
The Bears scored twice in the second half on TD runs by Maxbauer (1 yard) and Riddick (17 yards).
Sandwiched in-between was Bertie’s only score of the night and that came on special teams when Greg Williams returned a HCHS kick-off 78 yards to paydirt.
For the game, HCHS had 310 yards of total offense, with 224 coming on the slick turf.
The Bears, who evened their overall record at 4-4 with the win and improved to 2-1 in league play, will visit Pasquotank High School next Friday (Oct. 14).
Bertie (2-5; 0-2) also hits the road on Oct. 14 when they visit the Outer Banks with a game at First Flight High School.