BY  JAY BENNETT

The 9^th-ranked Indian Land Warriors continued their dream season last Friday night with a 28-14 win over the Cheraw Braves in the first-ever meeting between the two schools.  This is the Warriors first year in the Class AA ranks and after a multitude of mediocre seasons in Class A, it looks like Coach Michael Mayer has this team primed for a playoff run in the Upper State.

Rondreas Truesdale led the Indian Land rushing attack with 187 yards on 26 carries and the junior signal-caller also had three touchdowns.  Breyon Williams added 117 yards in 16 carries, as the home team gashed the Cheraw defense for 334 yards on the ground.

The home team dominated the second half of play, after the two teams went into intermission tied at 14-14.  The Warriors played keep-away in the second half, as the Braves only had the football once in the third quarter and once in the fourth period.

The home team only had the pigskin three times, but they scored twice and ran out the clock on their other possession.

The Warriors improved to an all-time best start of 7-0 with the win, 2-0 in region play, while the Braves fell to 1-6 with the loss, 1-1 in the region.

Coach Johnny White was very dejected after this loss and he had a few pointed words for his young squad.  “We are all extremely disappointed with the way that we played tonight.  I never expected us to play this way, but we did, and now, we’ve got to find a way to get better.  We had three key turnovers that hurt us on offense, but we never stopped them the entire night.  Poor tackling really cost us, plus we gave up over 300 yards on the ground.  The bottom line is that we did not execute well enough on either side of the ball to win the game and we got beat,” Coach White stated.

The Braves got the football first and they started off in great field position, after Durrell Hawkins ran the opening kickoff back to the Cheraw 38-yard line.  Cheraw went with the power running game from the outset and they quickly moved the ball down to the Warriors’ 32-yard line.  A sack and two incompletions brought up a fourth down and 11 at the 34-yard line, and Coach White called a timeout.

The Braves sent three receivers to the wide side of the field , but the play went awry in a hurry, as Reggie Wyatt stepped in front of Storm Jacobs’ pass at the 25-yard stripe and was to the races on a 75-yard interception return for the home team.  Chad Thomas added the P.A.T. and the Warriors had a quick 7-0 lead with 8:22 left in the first quarter and their offense had not yet seen the field.

Cheraw came right back on their next possession and went 61 yards in eight running plays to score, as Demetrius Miller scored on a 38-yard reverse around the left end.  Miller got to the left edge and then turned it up and reversed his field for the touchdown.  James Davis’ P.A.T. was blocked, as A.J. Gordon caved in the right side of the Cheraw line and was credited with the block to keep the Indian Land lead at 7-6 with 5:22 still left in the first period of play.

The Warriors came out in a wildcat formation, with only Truesdale and Williams in the backfield.  They ran the zone-read play nine consecutive times and that moved the ball down to the Cheraw three-yard line, as the first quarter finally came to an end.

Cheraw had piled up 89 total yards and five first downs in that period, while the home team had 74 rushing yards and four first downs.  The pass interception and touchdown return by Wyatt was huge and it would come back to haunt the Braves on this night.

The home team was called for motion on the first snap of the second period, but that only delayed the inevitable, as Truesdale scored from eight yards out, on the next snap, on a called quarterback draw.   Thomas added the P.A.T. and the Warriors now had a 14-6 lead with 11:54 left in the first half.  Truesdale accounted for 39 yards on the

77-yard drive, while Williams added the other 43 yards.

Right back came the Braves though, as Demetrius Miller set them up at the

39-yard line, with a 38-yard kickoff return down the left sideline.  Tierell Smith and Durrell Hawkins took turns running the football and eight plays later, the pigskin was down at the Indian Land 15-yard stripe.  A motion penalty and a tackle for loss on Hawkins backed the ball up to the 25-yard stripe, so the Braves called their last timeout of the first half.

Coach White had the perfect play call, as Jacobs faked a handoff and lofted a

pass over the middle to Brad Bradley.  Bradley caught the ball at about the 10-yard line, but he got hit hard at the five-yard stripe and fumbled the football, as Michael Rodriquez recovered the pigskin for the home team.

The Warriors gave it right back though, as a bad snap over Truesdale’s head forced him to scramble and the junior just threw the ball up for grabs.  Gerald Ewing made a leaping interception at the 40-yard stripe and he immediately went down with a leg injury.

Two running plays lost a yard, so Coach White went back to well again and Jacobs hit Bradley over the middle, but this time, Bradley held on to the football and picked up a first down at the 25-yard stripe.  Two Smith rushes moved the ball down to the 11-yard line and Darius Little came into the contest and he squirted off left tackle for a touchdown.  Jacobs then hit Little in the right flats for the two-point conversion and the contest was now tied up at 14-14 with only 2:26 left in the first half of play.

The Cheraw defense then stopped the Warriors on their next possession and that  forced the game’s only punt.   Chad Thomas got off a 32-yard boot and the ball rolled dead at the 18-yard line.  Jacobs took a knee on the first snap and the two teams went into intermission knotted up at 14-14.

The Braves had controlled the clock in the first half and had amassed 193 total yards and 11 first downs on 35 offensive snaps, while Indian Land had 131 total yards and six first downs on only 16 plays.  Cheraw had the football for 14:42 of that first half, while the home team only had it for 9:18, but he score was tied up at 14-14, thanks to Reggie Wyatt’s 75-yard interception return for a touchdown.

Whatever Coach Mayer said at halftime seemed to work like a charm, as the Warriors came out in the third quarter and immediately went 66 yards in only eight plays to retake the lead.  Truesdale was the main man on that march with 36 yards on four carries and he got the score on a three-yard quarterback draw, off the right side.  Chad Thomas added his third consecutive P.A.T. and the home team now had a 21-14 lead with

8:20 left in the third period of play.

The Warriors changed to a split back set on that drive, with Truesdale in the middle, and the misdirection of the other halfback seemed to open up some gaping holes in the Cheraw defense.

The Braves went right back to work on their next possession and they methodically moved the ball right back down the field with their vaunted running game.

Eleven consecutive running plays had the ball down to the Indian Land 10-yard stripe, but a holding call on a sweep play to Durrell Hawkins, wiped out an eight-yard gain and

a first down, and backed the ball up to the 20-yard line.  Jacobs then lofted a long pass

to Demetrius Miller, in the right side of the endzone, and Wyatt was called for pass interference.  That penalty moved the ball to the 10-yard line and gave the Braves an automatic first down.

Two running plays lost one yard, so Jacobs tried to hit Bradley once again, but he overshot his receiver to bring up a fourth down.  Jacobs connected with Demetris Holiday on a drag route, but Holiday was tackled at the four-yard line and the Warriors took over on downs.  The Braves had kept the football for 7:16 and had run 15 plays, moving it 57 yards, but they had nothing to show for it and that seemed to take the wind out of the visitors sails.

The home team went right back to running the football and the Cheraw defense had no answer.  The Warriors put the game out of reach with their 96-yard, 12-play drive, as Truesdale scored his third touchdown of the contest on a five-yard carry around the right end.  The junior accounted for 66 of those yards along the way and Chad Thomas’ P.A.T. made it 28-14 with 7:04 left in the contest.

Cheraw had one more offensive possession and it was an aerial attack.  Storm Jacobs completed three of his four passes with two of them going to Demetrius Miller and the other one to Gerald Ewing.  The first completion to Miller was a circus catch, down the home sideline, good for 35 yards and it moved the ball down to the Indian Land 23-yard line.  Ewing’s eight-yard catch and run got the ball to the 15-yard stripe and then it appeared Miller had a first down at the 10-yard stripe, but the official ruled the ball was fumbled and that man again, Rondreas Truesdale, recovered for the home team.

There was still 6:05 left in the contest, but the Braves never got the ball back, as Truesdale and Williams did their thing and picked up three first downs to run out the rest of the clock.

The Warriors kept the football for 20 plays and 11:01 of the final quarter and picked up 127 total yards, while the Braves only ran four offensive snaps and had 48 passing yards.

Durrell Hawkins led the Cheraw rushing attack with 92 yards on 17 carries, while Tierell Smith added 71 yards on 13 attempts.  Smith went out with an injury in the third period and never returned.  Demetrius Miller added 35 yards on two carries, as the Braves totaled 216 yards on the ground in 42 plays.  Storm Jacobs had a solid night throwing the football, as the junior was 8 for 12 for 92 yards.  Miller led the receiving corps with two catches for 40 yards, while Brad Bradley caught two balls for 36 yards.

“I’ve got to give Indian Land a lot of credit for their impressive running game,” Coach White said after the contest.  “Their backs were very quick and I think they shellshocked our defense a little bit.  Still, our tackling was terrible and we did not have great effort out there either.  We had guys in position to make a play, but they just whiffed and didn’t make the tackle.  This was a very poor performance by our defense and we’ve got to find some kids that want to play on that side of the ball,” Coach White added.

“We’ve got Andrew Jackson next and it’s always tough to win at their place,”

Coach White stated.  “We have got to take this thing one game at a time and focus on our task at hand.  We do not control our own destiny now, so all we can look at right now is beating Andrew Jackson and moving on to the next game.  We still need a few wins to make it to the playoffs and that starts with getting ready for Andrew Jackson on Monday,” Coach White added.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

(OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK)

#21            Senior wide receiver, Demetrius Miller, had 165 all-purpose yards

on Friday night.  He had 90 kickoff return yards, 35 rushing yards,

40 receiving yards and scored one touchdown.

(DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK)

#30                        Sophomore linebacker, Xavier Taylor, led the Cheraw defense with

eight total tackles.  He had six primary stops and two assists in Cheraw’s

28-14 loss to Indian Land.