Get your own Free Home PageWINSTON-SALEM — The Smith Golden Eagles’ football team put a damper on Parkland’s homecoming festivities for the second consecutive year with a 33-15 victory last Friday night at Deaton-Thompson Stadium.
BLS launched a massive offensive as it amassed 393 total yards with a potent mixture of rushing and passing. Senior tailback Dasharn Russell, who completed the game with 66 yards on 15 carries, sparked the inferno that would eventually torch the Mustang defense by scoring on the initial play of the game with a 99-yard kickoff return. According to Russell, the touchdown was a product of superb blocking by the wedge of teammates in front of him.
“It started of as, ‘I’m gonna catch it, I’m gonna catch it,’ and when I caught and turned it up, I looked and saw this huge hole that you could have driven two 18-wheelers through,” Russell said. “When I hit that hole, P. J. (Southerland) threw a block and smashed everybody down, and I just took it to the house.”
The Mustangs retorted with an eight-play, 69-yard drive which ended in a 41-yard touchdown reception by Tim Bristow with 7:52 left in the first quarter, and Jason Viverette scored on the two point conversion to put Parkland ahead by the score of 8-7.
The three first-half lead changes were an accurate representation of an obvious offensive seesaw effect. The Golden Eagles issued their reply in the form of a seven-play, 92-yard march downfield that was highlighted by a three-yard TD pass caught by sophomore fullback J.J. Thompson, who finished the game with 87 yards on 13 carries and two touchdowns.
The first half concluded with the score being 20-13 in favor of Smith, but the offensive pie was cut considerably even as Smith compiled 200 yards of total offense compared to Parkland’s 160 yards.
According to junior wide receiver JoJo McLaughlin, the halftime conversation reinforced the finer points of their play.
“We talked about executing, flying off the ball and our linemen and assignments, and we took it from there,” said McLaughlin.
McLaughlin, who caught three medium-range passes.
To start the second half, BLS proceeded to spoil the homecoming party by engineering a 79-yard, 10-play drive in which Russell scored on a one-yard rush with 5:37 remaining in the third quarter. Russell gave all credit to the blocking of the offensive line.
“I can’t credit them enough; they blocked lovely,” remarked Russell.
In the second half Smith’s defense held the Mustangs scorless. Perhaps the most impressive defensive stop came in the third quarter when Southerland, Brandon Summers and Ray Reid combined to stop Parkland tailback Brandon Isaiah as the Mustangs tried for a first down at the BLS 41-yard line with 2:17 remaining in the third period. This fourth-down play underscored the suffocating defensive tenacity which was commonplace in the second half.
“Coming into the game my key was to stop Brandon Isaiah, and force them to beat us passing,” said Southerland. “And once we got the run under control, they started passing and we knew the game was ours.”
If Parkand had any chance whatsoever of creeping back into the contest it was spoiled by another well-sustained Eagle drive. BLS put together a 78-yard, 10-play drive which ended in a 19-yard touchdown reception by Shamaree Brown.
Duane Taylor passed for a career-high 194 yards and two touchdowns. Taylor now has 2,823 yards in this his fourth season on varsity. It is believed that total is a school record.
“We knew that the only way we would lose this game was to stop ourselves, and we stopped ourselves a couple of times, but we prevailed,” explained Taylor. “We knew that this game was very important in the conference season because the preseason doesn’t count. It’s the conference season. We have to win all six of these games to get into the playoffs like we want to.”
The Big Time Corporation (BTC) which consists of Taylor and senior wideout Brandon Free did not put on as exciting an airshow as it did against Grimsley the previous Friday, but the passing game fell into place nonetheless. Free was somewhat hampered by double coverage, but sophomore McLaughlin stepped up by having his best game of his short career with 76 yards on three receptions.
“All week JoJo had been wanting the ball and I told him I would get it to him,” said Taylor. “He just had to show me that he was willing to catch it, and the first play it should have been picked off but he went up and got it and took it like it was his.
“Then after that it was all she wrote. He got hot, and we kept going to his side because we knew that they were going to double Free. So that left one on one with JoJo and he was wide open all the time. He just made things happen.”
This Friday Smith goes head to head against the team that spoiled its chances of making it to the playoffs last year, Western Guilford. Thus, the foremost objective is revenge.
“They took us out last year,” Russell said. “It’s a big payback week. We’re going to try to blow them out.”
© 1999 bls@oocities.com
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