Sports
Despite penalties, Mustangs win
By Griffin Pritchard
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To say that Charlie Long had a career night may be an exaggeration as the Stanhope Elmore Mustangs handed the Volunteers of Jefferson Davis their third consecutive loss of the year, 42-14 Thursday night at the Cramton Bowl.
All the junior defensive lineman did for his Mustangs was score two touchdowns. Long’s scores ” a first quarter fumble recovery in the end zone for a touchdown and a fourth quarter fumble recovery inside the Jeff Davis 10-yard line that was rumbled back for a touchdown ” matched four quarters of effort from the Volunteer offensive unit.
“That second one was something special,” said Long before leaving the field Thursday night.
While the Mustang offense was held scoreless against rival Wetumpka last week, it roared to life Thursday night despite more than 80 yards in first-half penalties and one ejection.
“A win is a win and we’ll take it,” said Jeff Foshee, coach of the Mustangs. “We had way too many penalties, especially on the offensive side of the ball. We’ve just got to do a better job of minimizing our mistakes. We had one big drive in the first half ” moved the ball 40 or 50 yards and I know they backed us up 40 or 50 yards.”
After forcing a Volunteer punt on their first possession, Stanhope Elmore’s offense took over at the 28-yard line. Quarterback Arsenio Favor motioned wideout Mardavian Martin over and then handed off to the senior who, after a couple of cuts and one slipped tackle, was off to the races for a 72-yard touchdown run.
“I had a score on my first two carries,” said Martin. “I came out expecting to score. But I’ve really got to put it on my (offensive) line. They were the main reason I was able to score.”
Jefferson Davis took the ensuing kickoff, but the returner slipped at the 9-yard line. A block in the back penalty against the Vols pushed them to the 4-yard line. Volunteer quarterback William Posey was forced to call the cadence form inside his own end zone. After the snap, Posey’s handoff to runningback Shelton Hamilton fell to the turf and was quickly pounced on by a blitzing Long for the Stanhope touchdown.
Vince Nix, who finished the night 6-of-6 with extra points, split the uprights to push the tally to 14-0 Stanhope with 8:26 left in the opening period.
“Charlie was in the right place at the right time,” said Foshee. “We talk a lot about scoring on defense and how important it is.”
After forcing another Volunteer put, Stanhope took over at their own 34-yard line. A series of miscues and penalties however led to a fourth-and-38 from the Mustang 6-yard line. On fourth down, the snap for the punt flies into the end zone, however, Stanhope’s Rodney Davis recovered the loose football, dodged a potential Volunteer tackler and raced along the Jeff Davis sideline to inside the opponent’s 25-yard line.
“The little things are what’s going to cost us,” said Foshee. “We’ve got to work on correcting the little things.”
A blocking in the back penalty against the Mustangs negated the run and Stanhope was forced to punt.
Following a Mustang punt in the second period, Demarcus Milliner stepped in front of a Posey pass inside the 20-yard line and returned it to the Volunteer 2-yard line. One play later, Martin took the hand-off from Favor and raced into the front corner of the end zone for the touchdown.
Nix added the point after to put Stanhope further ahead 21-0.
The Volunteers, however, changed gameplans. Instead of running the option-attack out of the shotgun, Jeff Davis coach Duane McWhorter placed Rashad Matthews at quarterback and changed the tempo of the game.
“That hurt us, we weren’t ready for it,” said Foshee. “That double-slot option game is a whole different animal. We were able to make some adjustments though and stop it for the most part.”
After a sustained drive, Matthews called his own number and slipped through the Stanhope Elmore defense for a 20-yard touchdown run. With the point after touchdown, Jeff Davis cut into the Mustangs lead 21-7 as both teams went into the intermission.
“I thought our offense did a good job,” said McWhorter. “I thought we played hard. There were a lot of kids playing on the field tonight that was their first experience. We might have run out of gas right there at the end, but that’s more my fault than the kids.”
Stanhope added a touchdown in the third period and so did the Volunteers to push the score to 28-14 going into the fourth quarter.
Milliner scored a touchdown on a 28-yard run with 6:54 left in the game. On fourth and two, the Mustang senior took the hand-off and sprinted to the front corner of the end zone to push the tally to 35-14, with Nix’s extra point.
“He’s got a lot of speed,” said Foshee. “I knew that we could get. He hopped outside and scored. It was a big momentum swing for us.”
Long iced the game with his second fumble recovery for a touchdown.
Unlike his first fumble recovery in the end zone, this one, Long picked up at the 7-yard line and rumbled into the end zone for the touchdown.
Nix added another point after to push the game to the final tally of 42-14.
Stanhope Elmore will travel to Shaw (Columbus, Ga.) High Friday night.
Jeff Davis will face Sidney Lanier inside Cramton Bowl.
