Strong Effort By Blue Devils Not Enough For Wildcats
Bud Tolbert gets airborne as he tries to connect with a pass from quarterback Ty Varner in tight space in Friday’s contest against Calhoun City
By Mack Gordon
Sports Reporter
CALHOUN CITY – Just as the buzzer sounded at the end of the first half, Trenderrious Brock strolled into the endzone giving Water Valley (3-2) a 21-14 lead heading into the locker room.
Calhoun City (4-1) jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead, but the Blue Devils rolled off 21 straight points to storm back and take the lead heading into the half as the defending 2A State Champions had been punched in the mouth by Coach Brad Embry’s scrappy Blue Devil squad.
However, after the half the Wildcats would show why they’re a championship caliber football team as they outscored Water Valley 34-7 in the second half, en route to the 48-28 victory.
Coach Embry was happy with his team’s effort, but he knows that they have to improve their play even more in order to win these big games.
“The competitiveness is there, but we’ve got to practice better and play better, which is easy to say but hard to do,” Embry reported about his team’s performance.
“They played a little looser (defensively) and we didn’t make enough plays. And you can’t just play good to beat a team like that, you’ve got to play great,” Embry added about Calhoun City’s halftime adjustments.
The Wildcats kicked off the scoring early in the contest on a one yard rushing touchdown by Keshun Parker, giving Calhoun City a 7-0 lead. After stopping the Blue Devils opening drive at their own six-yard line, Calhoun City quickly extended their lead with a huge 92 yard touchdown to take a 14-0 lead midway through the first quarter.
The offensive explosion by Water Valley was really sparked by the impressive play of the defense in the second quarter, forcing three straight three and outs against the always dangerous Calhoun City offense.
With the defense coming up big, the Blue Devils took the lead with two Trenderrious Brock rushing touchdowns and a touchdown strike from Ty Varner to Jayvon Morgan. With the 21-14 lead, the Blue Devils stormed off the field heading to the locker room as the Water Valley fans erupted, and on the other side the Wildcat faithful looked on in disbelief as they just watched their team surrender the early 14-0 lead.
The second half was a completely different story, Calhoun City came out of the locker room like Water Valley went in. They scored on another Keshun Parker touchdown on their first possession to tie the game up at 21.
The momentum really shifted on the following Water Valley possession, as the Wildcats got the first turnover of the game and quickly turned it into points on a five-yard JoJo Gray touchdown. Gray’s touchdown gave Calhoun City a 28-21 lead with 5:17 left in the third quarter.
Although the Blue Devils would quickly strike back to tie the game up at 28, the Wildcats would roll off 20 straight points in the fourth quarter to put the nail in the coffin.
The loss dropped Water Valley to (3-2) on the season, and the Blue Devils will travel to Winona this Friday to take on the Tigers in their last non-division contest of the 2017 season.
