CNHI
8-25-10 — The Wayne County Middle School football team opened the 2010 season last Friday night, at Garrard County School's Dyehouse Stadium.
The two games were billed as "Fright Night Lights" celebrating the start of the season on Friday the 13th. The teams met for a 7th grade/B game, which was followed by the 8th grade/A match up.
Garrard County scored on their opening series of the 8th grade game, but it was all Wayne Middle the rest of the way, as the Cardinals rolled to a 30-8 win.
Quarterback Logan Gardner scored on touchdown runs of 4, 1 and 16 yards, plus returned a kickoff 70 yards for another score to pace the winners.
Gardner rushed for 95 yards on 15 attempts, plus completed 1 of 4 passes for 4 yards, as Wayne County totaled 190 yards of offense and 11 first downs.
"We got off to a rough start to open the game, but after the first series I thought we controlled the line of scrimmage. Logan made good decisions with the football, the offensive line opened some holes and Kadamian Branham really played well from the fullback position. We have a lot of work to do, but I was proud of our effort," said Wayne County Middle School head coach Shannon Hutchinson.
Branham, an 8th grader, added 64 rushing yards on 12 attempts, while Drew Perkins totaled 25 yards on 3 touches.
The defensive effort was led by the play of noseguard Jared Philpot. Philpot totaled 6 tackles, 2 sacks and a tackle for a loss, while the duo of Branham and Gardner also contributed 6 stops each.
Justin Pennycuff, Rodney Rednour and Wesley Robinette all netted around 5 total tackles each as Garrard County was held without a first down for two quarters, after their opening score.
"We swarmed the ball pretty well and wrapped-up after the first series. I thought we had a lot of guys that played their positions pretty decent, I credit most of the improvement to gaining experience with our scrimmage against Williamsburg," said Hutchinson.
Garrard County made the most of the two big plays in the opener and a stingy defense to take a 14-0 win, in the 7th grade/ B match-up.
"Middle school football is a different and faster game, than youth league, so to be our first game I was proud of that unit. We played several different people, gained valuable experience, which is the goal of having two teams and playing two games. The hope is our 7th graders, newcomers and some inexperienced guys will make the most of these games on our schedule," said Hutchinson.
Up next for Wayne County Middle is the H and W Kickoff Classic, at Jewell Field against Knox County. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. Thursday night and season passes for all three home games are still available, and will be sold at the gate.