| Greenfield edges Jr. Lions |
By: Joey Guest – Special to the Weakley County Press
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Posted: Friday, October 2, 2009 11:08 am
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Plant and cut — Greenfield Junior High's Jeffery Johnson (center) looks for the path of least resistance, while teammate Colton McAlister (right) trails behind and Dresden's Joey Caldwell (left) tries to catch up. Photo by Joey Guest
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GREENFIELD, Tenn. – Austin Spence rushed for 73 yards and scored two touchdowns to lead Greenfield Junior High to a 16-14 homecoming victory over visiting the Dresden Middle School Lions, last Thursday night.
The Lions drove inside the Jackets’ red zone with less than a minute remaining, but a sack by Hunter Maness chewed up most of the final seconds, leaving one last desperation pass into the end zone, which fell incomplete as the horn sounded.
“I’m proud of these kids,” Greenfield head coach Hal Blackman said. “We’re thin in spots and playing a lot of seventh-graders on the line, but our eighth-grade leaders are carrying us at the skill positions. This was a big win.”
No one was more of a leader than Spence, who twice scored on bootleg plays around the right side after fake dive plays off-tackle left.
The first opened the scoring when Spence, on third-and-11, faked the handoff left and then rolled right to find tight end Xzavier Alley open for a 20-yard scoring strike in the final seconds of the first quarter. Jeffrey Johnson took the toss sweep around the left side to cross the goal line and put the hosts up 8-0.
Spence’s second TD came late in the third stanza on a third-and-inches play, faking a dive up the middle then bootlegging around the right side and sprinting down the sideline on a 26-yard scoring jaunt. Johnson again took the pitch left on the conversion attempt and again reached paydirt to provide the margin of victory for Greenfield (4-2) in a hard-fought contest.
Dresden QB Colter Swafford nearly equaled his rival on the other side of the ball with a magnificent effort of his own.
After one carry for 6 yards in the first half, Swafford averaged 7.1 yards per carry in the second half, scoring on a quarterback sneak from the 2-yard line midway into the final quarter to pull the Lions (2-3) to within a conversion run of tying the game.
But, Maness and Colton McAlister combined to stop Swafford’s two-point run attempt to keep the Yellowjackets on top, 16-14, with 4:02 remaining in regulation.
Swafford and the Lions regained their final possession at their own 31 with 2:15 left, and the Dresden QB saved his best for last, rushing for three straight first downs and 43 yards to the Greenfield 26.
William Trotty’s 15-yard scamper reached the Jacket 11, then the wheels fell off for the visitors.
An illegal motion penalty, followed by Swafford’s slip and fall on a 1-yard gain and the sack by Maness left the clock ticking toward the final gun. Swafford spiked the ball on third down with 5.5 seconds left, and then heaved a pass to Brock Dilday in the corner of the end zone, which fell harmlessly out of bounds as the final horn sounded.
Swafford ended with 77 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries to lead all ball carriers, while Ben Kendall added 72 yards on eight carries, including a 27-yard run to paydirt, for the Lions. Joey Caldwell also had a solid performance with 40 yards on seven carries. Swafford added 89 return yards to give him 166 all-purpose yards for the game.
Spence’s 13 carries for 73 yards and a TD led Greenfield, while fullback Jeremy Lannom added 35 tough yards on 10 touches. Spence was 2-of-4 passing for 31 yards and a TD to earn him a team-high 104 all-purpose yards.
• Editor’s Note: Joey Guest is a free-lance writer and associate editor of Pressbox1.com. He can be reached at joeyguest1@yahoo.com or 731-332-1164.
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