Crucial plays too much for Dragons to overcome

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, August 29, 2006

FAIRLAND — There were more than 100 plays in Friday’s opener between Fairland and the Portsmouth West Senators, but Dragons coach Brent Wilcoxon remembers three vividly.

In a free-scoring affair filled with plenty of offensive fireworks, three plays stood out as the Portsmouth West Senators outscored the Fairland Dragons 35-28 Friday in the opener for both teams.

West went up 28-14 in the third quarter thanks to a questionable personal foul penalty on Fairland when it appeared two players merely collided.

Email newsletter signup

“There were three critical plays. We stopped them on third and long and get a penalty. It looks like we had them stopped and they end up scoring,” Wilcoxon said.

“Then late in the game we made to mistakes that hurt us.”

The other play came with two minutes in the game. Fairland had a chance to tie the game, but two crucial turnovers thwarted any hopes for the Dragons.

West completed only one pass in the game, but it went for 40 yards and a touchdown as Ethan Morgan hit Adam Bodmer with 3:06left in the first quarter to make it 7-0.

Fairland answered with an 18-yard scoring pass from Cole Hatfield to Jacob Lucas and it was 7-7.

A 17-yard run by Austin Seevers put West up 14-6, but Michael Meachem ran 3 yards for a touchdown with 56 seconds left in the half and the game was tied again.

With the aid of a Fairland penalty, the Senators were able to score with just 13 seconds left in the half on a 2-yard run by Seevers and it was 21-14 at the break.

“The penalties killed us,” Wilcoxon said.

In the third quarter, Dale Sowards scored on a 10-yard run to up the lead to 28-14.

Fairland answered with a 1-yard run by Meachem and it was 28-21.

The Senators used a 19-yard scoring run by Seevers to open up a 35-21 cushion only to have Fairland claw back on a 9-yard pass from Hatfield to Lucas with 5:05 left.

But then came the two late turnovers.

Seevers finished with 193 yards on 30 carries as West ran for 309 as a team.

Fairland had 338 total yards, 156on the ground and 182 in the air. Hatfield was 12 of 19 for 182 yards with two TDs and two interceptions.

Lucas caught four passes for 79 yards and Michael Lamb had three grabs for 67 yards.

Ports. West71477=35

Fairland01477=28

First Quarter

PW — Adam Bodmer 40 pass from Ethan Morgan (Morgan kick) 3:06

Second Quarter

Fa — Jacob Lucas 18 pass from Cole Hatfield (Ayo kick) 9:07

PW — Austin Seevers 17 run (Morgan kick) 6:34

Fa — Michael Meachem 3 run (pass failed) 0:56

PW — Austin Seevers 2 run (Seevers kick) 0:13

Third Quarter

PW — Dale Sowards 10 run (Sowards kick) 7:21

Fa — Michael Meachem 1 run (Ayo kick) 1:47

Fourth Quarter

PW — Austin Seevers 19 run (Morgan kick) 7:53

Fa — Jacob Lucas 9 pass from Cole Hatfield (Ayo kick) 5:05

—————

PWFar

First downs1915

Rushes-yards50-30931-156

Passing yards40182

Total yards349338

Cmp-Att-Int1-4-112-19-2

Penalties-yards9-609-95

Punts-average4-30.01-26.0

—————

Individual Leaders

RUSHING — Ports. West: Austin Seevers 30-193, Dale Sowards 8-42, Alex Bloomfield 5-40, Ethan Morgan 6-19, Drew Piatt 1-15; Fairland: Travis Cardwell 11-41, Michael Meachem 13-51, Cole Hatfield 3-43, Aaron Ward 1-0, Justin Moore 3-21.

PASSING — Ports. West: Ethan Morgan 1-4-1-40; Fairland: Cole Hatfield 12-19-2 182.

RECEIVING — Ports. West: Adam Bodmer 1-40; Fairland: Jacob Lucas 4-79, Michael Lamb 3-67, Aaron Ward 3-27, Travis Cardwell 1-7, Michael Meachem 1-2.