‘Canes Beat Pirates in Overtime

The ‘Canes traveled to Zebulon last Friday and defeated the Pike County Pirates 28-27 in overtime. The win was over a team which won their first nine games last year and which defeated the ‘Canes 40-20.

Athletic Director and Head Football Coach Jimmy Hughes said, “We played well, and in certain parts of the game we played as good as we have in the two and a half years I’ve been here.

“Like I said before the season started, we tried to do what we knew how to do and what our kids felt comfortable doing. We had 407 yards rushing and our offensive line did a great job for us, with four new starters in there. And our backs blocked well for each other.

“Because of his toe injury our quarterback, Keldrick Davis, played wide receiver and free safety for the first three quarters. In the fourth quarter we put him back at the quarterback position. Dee Chapman played the position for us the first three quarters and did an excellent job for us. You could see his confidence growing as the game progressed. He got more comfortable, and we didn’t ask him to do too much, but what he did, he did well.

“Keldrick is about 90 percent. He still has a little pain, but his injury (toe) is the type which you can’t do much for.

“On defense we had a great effort. A.J. Thomas had a lot of tackles, and he was around the ball all night long. Keldrick also played well defensively and made some good plays on their long passes. On two plays he ran them down and knocked the ball down before they could catch it.

RaMardo (Scooter) Stewart had 132 yards rushing, scored a touchdown and had seven tackles on defense. Joe Standifer had 190 yards rushing, scored three touchdowns, and had five tackles on defense.

“Those kids played well defensively and made a lot of tackles, but one of the things that enabled them to do that was that the front four kept the offensive linemen off them so they, as linebackers, could make those tackles.

“Jeremy Sands, Brandon Barger, Timmy Postlethwait and Justin VanHorn played well enough so the guys who lined up behind them could make tackles. People might not realize it but the reason those guys were making those tackles was because our front four were tying up their offensive linemen so they couldn’t come out and block our linebackers.
“We gave up 27 points, but we made one good goal line stand and their coach commented to me about how physical we played, and he was right.

“We beat a good football team, a team which I thought was better than Social Circle. I don’t know how good we are yet, because it’s still early, but I do know it was a great game to coach and watch.”

The team has a bye week next week and will return to action on Rose Bowl Field on Friday, Sept. 18, when Hancock Central comes to town.

The JV ‘Canes play their first game today, Thursday, at Southwest Macon.

The Middle School ‘Canes lost 18-0 in their first game versus Youth last week. They played Greene County yesterday, too late to report the score.

OFFENSIVE STATISTICS
(Rushing Attempts, Yards)
Joe Standifer 20, 190
Ramardo Stewart 15, 132
Keldrick Davis 10, 85
Passing
(Attempts, Completed, Yards)
Dee Chapman 8, 2, 24
Davis 2, 1, 18
RECEIVING
Davis 1, 16
Stewart 1, 18
DEFENSE
(TACKLES, FOR LOSS)
A. J. Thomas 12, 1
Davis 10
Stewart 7, 2
Standifer 5, 2