Cards deal Jackets defeat

The Williamsburg Yellow Jackets held a 26-6 lead with 7:47 left in the third quarter against the South Laurel Cardinals in the Cumberland Valley Bowl Saturday night but wasn’t able to hold off a rally by the home team and lost a heartbreaker, 32-26.

A much bigger and faster South Laurel team wore down the Yellow Jackets in the second half. Numbers and injuries also played a huge role in this game. With two starters on the sidelines (Chris Lowrie and Jarred Barton) the Yellow Jackets were already outmanned by the Cardinals two-to-one.

“We got a little winded, got a little tired,” said Williamsburg Coach Jerry Herron. “We knew they would be a very tough football team. We were outsized at every position.”

However, Herron felt his team showed much improvement since their win over the Jellico Blue Devils. “We were so much better than last week,” he said. “We were terrible last week, we couldn’t line up right, we couldn’t run the right routes.”

“We moved the ball, they didn’t stop us, we stopped ourselves,” said Herron. “They were bringing heat from everywhere. Ryan settled in and threw the ball well tonight.”

Senior quarterback Ryan Moses finished the game with an unofficial 16 of 29 for 238 yards and two TD passes. Senior Daniel Pettit has seven catches for one touchdown and 115 yards.

Almost everything was going Williamsburg’s way in the first half as the Yellow Jackets put three touchdowns on the scoreboard and held the Cardinals out of the end zone despite some long runs by Tyler Vaughn.

Williamsburg got on the scoreboard after the Yellow Jacket recovered a fumble and moved the ball down the field without much effort. Moses hit on his first three passes to Daniel Pettit, Tyler Brown and J.P. Payne to move the ball down to the 15-yard line. Two straight carries by Moses and the Yellow Jackets were on the scoreboard. Moses final run was an 11-yard keeper.

The Yellow Jackets converted their only conversion of the night when Moses hit Payne for the two-pointer and Williamsburg led, 8-0.

The Cardinals tried to exploit their speed several times in the first half but, the Yellow Jackets were able to stop South Laurel each time until Vaughn broke loose on a six-yard run into the end zone with 9:16 left in the second period. The conversion failed and the Jackets held a narrow, 8-6 lead.

Williamsburg (1-1) answered with a nine-play drive of their own. The Jackets faced a fourth-and-two from the South Laurel 27 yard line and Travis Thomas came up with a big 10-yard run to save the drive. Moses hit Brown on a 27-yard strike to push the lead out to eight with 6:23 in the opening half.

The Yellow Jackets forced another South Laurel drive to stall at midfield and the Cardinals pinned Williamsburg back to their own 13-yard-line. Back-to-back runs by Thomas of five yards and 16 yards got the Jackets out to the 34-yard line where Moses was able to work. He quickly completed a pass to Brown at midfield.

After hitting the South Laurel defense head on for no gains by Thomas and Moses, Williamsburg faced a third-down. A procedure penalty pushed the ball back to the Jackets 45 and with seconds remaining Moses went for the TD and hit a streaking Pettit, who was wide open, in the middle of the field. Pettit took the ball in for the score with :11 ticks on the clock. The conversion failed and Williamsburg led, 20-6.

The Jackets failed to score on their first drive of the third quarter and were forced to punt. The Cardinals took over at their own 20-yard line and the first play from scrimmage resulted in a fumble recovered by sophomore Aaron Mack. Five plays later Moses scored from one-yard out for a 26-6 lead with 7:47 left in the period. An 18-yard pass to Pettit set up the score.

The Cardinals came back with a quick drive and scored in less than two minutes when Vaughn broke loose for a 35-yard run to paydirt.

The momentum turned as Williamsburg fumbled on first-and-ten from the 33-yard-line. A 12-play drive resulted in a Vaughn touchdown from two yards out on the first play of the fourth quarter.

Too much time and too much South Laurel speed caught up with the Yellow Jackets. A six-play drive for Williamsburg ended in 18 yards and a fourth-and-six at their own 48-yard line. The Cardinals held and took over at the 47-yard line of Williamsburg. Three plays later Vaughn took off on a 42-yard run to the end zone. The PAT was blocked and the game was tied at 26-26.

A three-and-out series didn’t help the Jackets as a tired defense took the field a minute later. South Laurel put together a slow drive that left 1:42 on the clock when Vaughn scored from five yards out. Vaughn fumbled the conversion and Williamsburg still had less than two minutes to answer.

The first play from scrimmage resulted in a 19-yard catch by junior Spencer Brown. But a sack and intentional grounding pushed the ball back to the Yellow Jacket 42. Moses was intercepted on the ensuing play.

“Some of the kids stepped up and played some real football,” said Herron in his post-game show. “They didn’t stop us, we stopped ourselves. They are bigger than us all over the field.”

“We know we had this team,” said Herron. “We know we could have beaten them and should have beaten them. There’s no doubt in my mind we were better, just better as a team, they were better across the board physically. If we got in a street fight they would whoop our tales all over the place, but as far as football I thought we were better, we’re just single A football, two guys short everywhere we go.”

“I know we laid down and should have won this game,” said Herron.

“We took these tough games, Knox Central, Hazard, Harlan, because we knew if we made it through without a lot of injuries it would make us a better team,” said Herron.

The Yellow Jackets will head to Harlan Friday night where they will meet a Green Dragon team full of pride. Harlan will celebrate their school’s 100^th Anniversary with a Hall of Fame induction and tail gaiting from 5-7 p.m.

“We have got to scout them a little on film,” said Herron. “Coach Donahue is an excellent football coach. He does a great job and I know they played Corbin tight before they pushed it out on them.”

“We have a lot to fix because anybody that saw this game knows they are going to do the same thing. They are going to line up and run at you,” Herron said.

Harlan senior running back had a big night against the Redhounds, running the ball 34 times for 174 yards and scored two touchdowns Friday night.

“We’ve got some stuff to work on,” said Herron. “We have some kids in the wrong positions, wrong place that didn’t make plays. We have an entire new D-line and a new linebacking staff. We got ran over on those last two drives and we couldn’t do anything about it.
“We tried everything,” said Herron, “But as a whole the kids have gotten better. I think when we get into our district if our kids can stay healthy and keep our heads up and play, it’s going to be where we need to be.”

South Laurel 32, Williamsburg 26

Williamsburg            8  12  6    0- 26

South Laurel            0    6  6  20- 32

W- Ryan Moses 11 run (Moses to J.P. Payne)

SL-Tyler Vaughn 6 run (run failed)

W- Tyler Brown, 27 pass from Moses (run failed)

W- Daniel Pettit, 45 pass from Moses (pass failed)

W- Moses, 1 run (pass failed)

SL- Vaughn 35 run (kick failed)

SL- Vaughn 2 run (Vaughn run)

SL- Vaughn 42 run (kick blocked)

SL- Vaughn 5 run (run failed)