October 31.
Friday night. The Tornadoes pulled out a win that was scary for the longest time, though it didn’t start out scary.
Early in the game coach Chris Elerick ran a trick play, the hook and ladder. Quarterback Garrett Wright threw a pass to Sammy Blackburn who lateraled to Cordae McCormick for an exciting 76 yards.
Blackburn also had 3 interceptions in the first half alone. In fact, there were bunches of turnovers by both teams. Drumright had 7 and Depew had 8.
Elerick said “ Big win on senior night, big win in district in district play. Puts us in a position to finish second, and host a playoff game, most likely against Quinton.
“I thought the kids played a gutsy game. The kids played hard. Defense played well all night.”
After McCormick’s touchdown (it was a great play), we scored another touchdown in the first quarter. Aiden Lumpkins intercepted a pass and ran it back to the 1 yard line. Two plays later Garrett Wright scored on a 1 yard touchdown run.
Our defense was playing great pass defense but depew had a plan B.
Elerick said “Depew ran 66 plays to our 46, mostly n the second and third quarters.”
Depew started running the ball with quite a bit go success as Jack Johnson and Gabe Peeler ran the ball well. So it was 12-8 Drumright and with 8 minutes left, Wright scored on a 5 yard carry, but a Depew player punched him… somewhere inappropriate… the official called a personal foul but didn’t throw him out of the game.
The official was quizzed by Elerick, as he should have thrown the kid out of the game, but he wasn’t kicked out on the most personal foul of all.
Keegan Ward came in for Wright on the two point conversion and we led 20-14.
Im not going to tell you it was easy stopping Depew. Depew ran the kickoff back 35 yards and then mate it to the 23 yard line when Garrett Wright intercepted a pass to cut the threat.
But it still wasn’t over. Deep in our own territory on fourth and they went for it. Garrett Wright gunned the ball to Sammy Blackburn who caught a 6 yard pass.
We did have to punt, and Depew had one play to tru to tie it up.
But Max Gray (who played a great game) and Sammy Blackburn broke up a pass with no time remaining.
Although our defense was great, Elerick said “Our offense is sloppy.”
Blackburn had 3 interceptions and broke up several passes, Garrett Wright had 6 tackles and 2 interceptions, Lumpkins had 9 tackles with one interception, Keegan Ward had 13 tackles, Grey had 12 tackles, Conrad Reed had 1 fumble recovery and 10 tackles.
Others making tackles were Chase Creekmore, Krypton Ward, Kamari Lewis, Sammy Blackburn, Aydin Coffelt, and Cordae McCormick.
Garrett Wright had 93 yards on 20 carries and 2 touchdowns, he was 10 out of 17 passing for 145 yards, and 1 touchdowns.
Aiden Lumpkins had 4 carries for 42 yards. Cordae McCormick had 9 yards on 5 carries and caught six passes for 188 yards. Sammy Blackburn caught 4 passes for 27 yards.
Gavin Howell also played in the game. He is a senior and has done well. Gray recorded a fumble.
Well thank goodness that scare is over. Coach Elerick said, “We go to Foyil on Friday night. We need to play our best game because Foyil is playing for their district spot in the playoffs. They are 6-3 on the season.”
Assistant coaches are Scott Hollabaugh and Mosses Williams.
The game is at 7 p.m. If we loose to Foyil, it will be a three way tie and it comes down to points. Drumright is at +6, Depew -6, and Foyil at -24.