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Pulaski uses big first half to down Cards Shannon Hutchinson Sports Writer The Wayne County Cardinals met Pulaski County last Friday night at Jewell Field in the season opener for both squads. The contest marked the 10th meeting between the two rivals with the Maroons winning the last four in the series, including a 39-20 decision at home in 2003. Pulaski’s Derrick Bechard returned the game’s first punt 72 yards for a touchdown, at the 9:24 mark of the opening quarter and the Maroons built a 21-0 first half lead en route to a 28-7 win. The Maroons used only 36 offensive plays to total 298 yards of offense, paced by the senior trio of Tyler Todd, Brett Faulkner, and Tyler Sexton. Todd rushed for 135 yards on 10 attempts with a score, while Faulkner connected on two touchdown passes of 42 and 17 yards to Sexton. “I thought our effort was there and to the kids’ credit we never quit, but we made too many mental mistakes. Pulaski County has a solid team and I believe they’ll do good things, but we dug a hole in the first half and just couldn’t recover,” said Cards head coach Shawn Thompson. Wayne County wanted to control the clock and managed to do just that, but the offense yielded just one touchdown, as 70 offensive plays produced 201 total yards of offense. Senior halfback Matt Goff paced the unit with 129 rushing yards, on 36 attempts. “We were able to move the football, the thing that’s disappointing is we never were able to break a big play, or find a way to get the ball in the end zone. The biggest difference in this game and our two scrimmages was our ability to break a long run or two. Our downfield blocking across the board has to improve. Give Pulaski a lot of credit they are solid up-front, plus their linebackers really swarm to the football,” said Thompson. Pulaski County opened the scoring the first time the Maroons touched the football. After the Cards game-opening drive stalled Derrick Bechard returned a Josh Bell punt 72 yards for a score. Chris Harness booted the extra-point to give the visitors a 7-0 lead with 9:24 left in the quarter. “That’s certainly a big play and not the way we needed to get started. We had several guys make mental mistakes, and every time we did that, Pulaski made us pay,” said Thompson. Wayne County answered with a 16-play, 49-yard drive of their own that eventually stalled at the Pulaski County 36 yard-line. The Cards were forced to punt and the Maroons wasted little time in their first offensive series of the game. Pulaski needed just three plays to march 83 yards and scored on quarterback Brett Faulkner’s 42 yard strike to Tyler Sexton. The play was set up just after Tyler Todd rumbled 36 yards to the Cards 42 yard-line. The extra-point pushed the Maroons’ lead to 14-0 with just under a minute left in the first quarter. The Cards once again responded with a drive into Pulaski territory, but couldn’t reach the end zone. Wayne County used a 33 yard kickoff return by Matt Goff to enjoy their best field-position of the half. Goff rushed five times for 26 yards before Ryan Steele was sacked, which forced the hosts to punt. The Maroons capped-off an eight-play, 80-yard drive with Brett Faulkner’s 17 yard touchdown pass to Tyler Sexton. Sexton led all receivers with five catches for 81 yards and two scores, as Jeremy Smith added the extra-point to push the lead to 21-0 with 5:14 remaining in the first half. Wayne County once again threatened just before the half and managed a 15-play drive that marched to the Maroons’ 11 yard-line, but that’s as close as the Cards could get. Quarterback Ryan Steele was sacked for a loss of 10-yards and was later intercepted on a desperation throw on fourth down. Wayne County’s Tyler King ended the first half with an interception of a Pulaski County pass, just before the horn. “We had three great chances to score in the first half and just didn’t get the job done. We moved the ball with the run and pass pretty well, if we could’ve found a way to finish one of those drives it may have been a different game,” said Thompson. Neither team managed to score in the third quarter, as Wayne County junior safety J.T. Dodd stopped a Pulaski County drive with the Cards’ second interception of the game. “Our kids never quit and I really think we settled down a bit after being so pumped in the first half. Being such a young team and playing at home, I think adrenaline maybe effected us in a negative way early. The first game is so much different than any scrimmage game, the atmosphere is just another level,” said Thompson. Wayne County’s defense recovered a fumble at the mid-field stripe and capitalized that miscue into their only score of the night. The Cards used 13 plays to march 50 yards, highlighted by the play of junior quarterback Ryan Steele. Steele completed a 9-yard pass to Tyler King and fourth down and eight, plus later scored on a 4-yard keeper, at the 11:35 mark of the fourth period. Joe Coffey booted the extra-point to close the gap to 21-7. The Cards had a chance to pull within one score, after their defense held, but couldn’t take advantage of excellent field position. After a 15-yard punt, Wayne County had the football inside Pulaski’s side of 50, but couldn’t respond with a first down. “That was a big series there after the defense held and gave us great field-position. We must take advantage of situations like that especially against good teams like Pulaski,” said Thompson. The Maroons added another score late as Tyler Todd finished an eight-play drive with a 4-yard touchdown run. The point after pushed the lead to 28-7 with just 2:41 left in the game. Neither team would score again as Pulaski County claimed their fifth straight win in the series and improved to 8-2 all-time against the Cards with the 28-7 win. “Hopefully this will be a great learning experience for our team. We have to work at getting more people involved next week. I think with so many guys playing both ways fatigue probably led to some of our mental mistakes. If we’ll work on that and build on our attitude we displayed in the second half after digging a hole, I truly believe good things will happen,” said Thompson. Wayne County’s defense was led by the 9 tackles of senior linebacker Josh Bell. Tyler King and Ryan Steele helped the cause with seven total stops each, while King added an interception and a fumble recovery in his first-ever varsity game. “I thought Tyler played pretty well in his first varsity game. He made some big plays on defense and made some nice catches on offense,” said Thompson. Up next for the Cards is a road trip to 1-0 Mercer County. The Scotties are coming off a 31-22 win at Monroe County. “Mercer County has a very experienced team with good size up-front, but they also excellent speed led by halfback Andrew McCloud. We have to key on McCloud, he leads their offense much like Matt Goff does for us. We’ll have to show improvement in all areas and play with a high level of intensity,” said Thompson. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday night at Mercer County High School Field. Add a comment |
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