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| Milan rush attack proves to be too much for Westview |
By: Joey Guest – Special to the Weakley County Press
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Posted: Tuesday, September 8, 2009 5:53 pm
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Head-on Collision — Milan's Beau Vandiver (left) stands in the way of Charger fullback Chevy Taylor during the Bulldogs' 24-7 win over visiting Westview Friday night.
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MILAN, Tenn. – Avery Williamson ran for 149 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries as the Milan Bulldogs improved to 3-0 with a 24-7 victory over Westview, Friday night, at Johnnie Hale Stadium. Chargers quarterback Tanner Spencer completed 14-of-28 passes for 158 yards to lead Westview’s offense, but he was sacked five times for minus-53 yards. Milan defensive end Will Hood recorded three of those sacks for a total of 30 yards lost.
Williamson, a standout fullback and linebacker, was the difference for the Bulldogs, converting numerous third downs with big plays, including a 42-yard run to paydirt late in the third quarter to put the Chargers away.
“This is why he’s getting recruited by every team in the SEC,” Westview coach Don Coady said. “He’s obviously the best player on the field, and we just really had no answer. We’re plugging those two center gaps with two tackles and two linebackers, and he’s just running over us right and left. There’s just not much you can do about that.”
Westview falls to 0-3 (0-1, District 13-AA) as it looks toward hosting Camden next Friday night, while Milan (3-0, 1-0 District 13-AA) hosts Humboldt.
“I thought we came out and battled with them and were competitive with them, and I thought we played the best game we’ve played thus far,” Coady said. “Our kids were kind of embarrassed how we played last week. We didn’t think we were as physical as we could’ve, and should’ve, been, so we tried to improve that. I think we’ve made some progress.”
Westview showed plenty of competitive fire coming out of the halftime break. Trailing 17-0, the Charger defense forced a three-and-out on Milan’s opening possession of the third quarter, and following a punt, Westview put together its best drive of the night. DeMarcus Williams, the stellar Chargers tailback, carried the ball three times for 27 yards in the drive, which bruising fullback Chevy Taylor finished off with an 11-yard bash up the middle and a 4-yard plunge for paydirt at the 7:53 mark. Landon Prather’s extra-point kick split the uprights, and suddenly, Westview was back in the game, down 17-7.
But, just when a comeback started to creep into the minds of the Chargers faithful, big No. 19 for the Bulldogs crushed all hopes. Facing third-and-10 at midfield, Williamson took the handoff on a draw play, erupted through the middle, cut left, crushed a Charger defender at the 15 and cruised into the end zone for a 42-yard TD. Rick Moody’s point-after kick put Milan back up by 17, and the Chargers couldn’t muster another challenge.
Westview surprised Milan to open the game by coming out with a quick and accurate passing game. Spencer connected on his first four pass attempts, two each to Matt Melton and Taylor. However, Melton’s second catch was wiped out due to a holding penalty, and three plays later, a mishandled snap on fourth-and-six at the Milan 35 lost 4 yards and ended the potential scoring drive.
The Bulldogs promptly drove into Westview territory, where the strong leg of Rick Moody booted a 45-yard field goal to give Milan a 3-0 advantage at 5:11 of the opening stanza. Milan stretched its lead to 10-0 on its next possession with a nine-play, 90-yard drive, highlighted by two third-down conversion runs of 22 and 33 yards by Williamson and capped by a 6-yard, third-and-goal touchdown pass from Zac Ryan to Dominic Moore.
Led by the powerful running of Williamson and the slashing style of Jobronski Gilbert, Milan extended its lead to 17-0 with a 12-play, 75-yard drive that chewed up more than six minutes off the first-half clock. A roughing the punter penalty on fourth-and-11 kept the drive alive at midfield, and another chain-moving third-down rush by Williamson set up Gilbert’s 3-yard TD scamper.
Westview mounted a challenge in the final 2:45 of the first half as Taylor ran for 22 yards, had a reception for 4 yards and another run for 7 yards to reach midfield. With time winding down, Spencer hit Seth Waterfield for 12 yards and Brian West for 10 yards to reach the Milan 10-yard line with 44 seconds remaining. Sniffing the end zone with one timeout remaining, Spencer was sacked by Christian Coleman and LaVincent Coleman for a 14-yard loss. After using his final timeout, Spencer took one last shot at the end zone but was hauled down for a 10-yard loss and the first of three sacks by Hood. Westview scampered to get the field goal unit lined up, but the first-half clock expired before the Chargers could make the snap, thus heading into the locker room down 17-0.
Westview never could get its ground game on track. The fleet-footed Williams was held to 37 yards on nine carries for the game, and with the sack yardage counting against their rushing totals, the Chargers managed just 39 total rushing yards. Conversely, the Bulldogs amassed 271 yards on the ground, despite 110 penalty yards, led by Williamson’s 149 and Gilbert’s 74.
Mark Tucker had a good game catching the ball for Westview, leading the receiving corps with five catches for 63 yards.
Editor’s Note: Joey Guest is a freelance writer and associate editor of Pressbox1.com. He can be reached at joeyguest1@yahoo.com or 731-332-1164.
Westview-Milan, Stats
Westview 0 0 7 0—7
Milan 3 14 7 0—24
First Quarter
MHS — FG Rick Moody 45, 5:11.
Second Quarter
MHS — Dominic Moore 6-yard pass from Zac Ryan, (Moody kick), 11:11.
MHS — Jobronski Gilbert 3-yard run, (Moody kick), 2:45.
Third Quarter
WHS — Chevy Taylor 4-yard run, (Landon Prather kick), 7:53.
MHS – Avery Williamson 42-yard run, (Moody kick), 3:31.
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WHS MHS
First Downs 16 15
Rushes-yards 27-39 40-271
Passing yards 158 37
Comp-Att-Int 14-28-0 5-11-0
Punts 4-36.8 2-42.5
Fumbles-Lost 2-0 0-0
Penalties-yards 7-62 12-110
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Individual Statistics
Rushing — Westview, DeMarcus Williams 9-37, Chevy Taylor 6-54, Abraham Haddad 2-2, Team 1-(-4), Tanner Spencer 9-(-50); Milan, Avery Wlliamson 10-149, Jobronski Gilbert 13-74, Trey Milan 5-35, Zac Ryan 5-(-7), Tim Adkisson 4-13, Rodney Nance 2-5, Benjamin Hemann 1-2.
Passing — Westview, Spencer 14-285-0 — 158; Milan, Ryan 5-11-0 — 37.
Receiving — Westview, Mark Tucker 5-63, Matt Melton 3-32, Seth Waterfield 2-25, Brian West 2-25, Taylor 2-13; Milan, Tez Bell 3-20, Dominic Moore 2-17.
Records — Westview 0-3 (0-1 District 13-AA), Milan 3-0 (1-0 District 13-AA).
Next Game — Westview will entertain Camden with kickoff at 7:30 on Friday night, while Milan welcomes Humboldt with kickoff at 7 on Friday night. |
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