BEARVILLE — “That was a tough, physical, brutal football game.”
The statement from second- ranked Pierce County head coach Ryan Herring came minutes after telling the Brooks County players and coaching staff he had “the utmost respect for Brooks County” and saying he expected to see them playing Game 15 in Atlanta.
The Bears (5-0) got all they could handle from the Class A DII fifthranked Trojans (1-4) Friday night on Rec Night, winning 28-16 behind the four-touchdown performance of junior running back Jae’Veon Williams.
Prior to the game, Pierce County paid homage to Patterson High School alumni with an all class recognition.
PCHS overcame its second deficit of the season when Brooks County grabbed a 10-7 lead with 7:38 left in the third quarter. The Bears took the lead for good at 14-10 on Williams’ (20 carries, 189 yards) second touchdown just two seconds before the period ended.
Williams sandwiched two more scores around a Trojans’ touchdown pass over the final 12 minutes, helping Pierce County start 5-0 for the fourth consecutive season.
“Jae’Veon ran the ball hard,” said Herring. “He got tough yards ... he ran through some tackles and backs usually don’t run through Brooks County. God makes running backs and he made one with Jae’Veon.”
Williams’ first carry, one of only 15 plays for PCHS in the opening 24 minutes, was a 61-yard touchdown jaunt, racing unscathed through a hole at right tackle for the early 7-0 lead. The scoring play came on the third snap of the game with 10:11 on the first quarter clock. Garrett Stevenson followed with the first of his four PATs.
A defensive war broke out over the next six series leading into intermission with each team surrendering “explosive” plays (20plus yards) and coming away empty.
Brooks County had a 39-yard pass play on its initial snap of its second offensive possession before eventually stalling and turning the ball over on downs at the Bears’ 31.
The Trojans put together a drive, consuming 6:48 to start the second quarter and reaching the PCHS 22 before having to punt the ball away on fourth-and-24. They had a pass play covering 24 yards and a Damari Baynard (16 carries, 165 yards) run for 25 yards on the ensuing snap in the drive.
Their last possession of the half moved to the Bears’ 16 before stalling and settling for a Rafael Mojica 34-yard field goal cutting the deficit to 7-3 at the break. Baynard had back-to-back runs of 33 and 19 yards to set up the kick.
Following a three-andout on its second series, Pierce County reached the Trojans’ 35 on its third possession before stalling with Williams and Drake Dowling (18 carries, 65 yards) putting together consecutive 10+-yard runs.
After Brooks County’s nearly seven-minute empty possession, PCHS got a 44-yard pass from Williams (1-for-1) to “sniffer” Johnny Stone (two catches, 64 yards). A strip-tackle was recovered by the Trojans.
The visitors took the second-half kickoff and drove 80 yards in nine plays to take a 10-7 lead.
Baynard carried on the first six snaps, ripping off runs of 16, 34 and 15, helping the Trojans reach the Pierce County 11. After three running plays netted one yard, Brooks County quarterback Junior Burress (11-of-20, 160 yards) found tight end Connor Priest open on fourthand- nine for the 10-yard score. Mojica drilled the PAT for the three-point lead with 7:38 remaining in the third.
“They (Trojans) killed us with their counter,” said Herring. “The defensive line was getting kind of washed down. Right now we’re not setting a hard edge for anybody to have to get a around. “
The Bears responded with their biggest drive of the season, putting together a time-consuming 13-play, 88-yard drive eating up 7:36 off the clock.
Dowling (2-of-3, 33 yards) completed passes covering 20 yards to Stone and 13 to Ocean Henderson, the second on a fourth-and-two bootleg right pass from the Brooks County 17.
Williams broke off runs of 21 and 14, the latter coming on a third-andone moving the ball to the Trojans 25. After being dropped for a yard loss following the Dowling-to-Henderson connection, Williams bulled his way in from the five in two plays for the go-ahead score. Stevenson’s PAT upped the margin to 14-10 with :02.5 left on the third quarter clock.
As slow and methodical as the two third quarter scoring possessions were, the two teams combined for three touchdowns in just over eight minutes of clock time in the final stanza.
A short 13-yard punt by Brooks County set the Bears up 27 yards from the end zone early in the fourth period.
PCHS needed five plays to extend the lead to 21-10 on a five-yard run by Williams with 7:31 to play.
Brooks County flew 80 yards in four plays with the last 57 coming on a Burress to Trae Stevenson (Georgia Tech commit) fly pattern, one of six passes Stevenson pulled in for 95 yards. The Bears stuffed the two-point conversion, leaving the score at 21-16 with 6:07 on the clock.
After Nigel Brown recovered the ensuing onside kick at the Pierce County 44, the Bears needed seven running plays to cover the 56-yard distance to the end zone.
Williams carried five times with his last two attempts covering 11 yards and the final 24 yards pushing the advantage to 28-16 with 2:18 to play.
The Bears’ defense, which surrendered a season- high 336 yards (176 rushing, 160 passing), forced Brooks County to turn the ball over on downs following a fourthdown incompletion, sealing the win.
“I’m so very proud of our guys,” said Herring. “We made mistakes and we’ve still got to get better on defense, but we hit and played hard in all three phases of the game.
“The bottom line is we’re still a work in progress in our box (defensive line, linebackers). We’ve just got to keep improving. I can’t ask for a whole lot more out of our guys right now, though. That was a full team effort.
“All the credit goes to players, but all the glory goes to God. All of this can be taken away.” YARDSTIICK
Brooks County 0 3 7 6 - 16 Pierce County 7 0 7 14 - 28 SCORING SUMMARY First Quarter PCHS - Jae’Veon Williams 61 run (Garrett Stevenson kick), 10:11
Second Quarter BCHS - Rafael Mojica 34 field goal, :01.1
Third Quarter BCHS - Connor Priest 10 pass from Junior Burrus (Mojica kick), 7:38 PCHS - Williams 1 run (Stevenson kick), :02.5
Fourth Quarter PCHS - Williams 5 run (Stevenson kick), 7:31 BCHS - Trae Stevenson 57 pass from Burrus (run failed), 6:07 PCHS - Williams 24 run (Stevenson kick), 2:18 BCHS PCHS First downs 13 14 Rushes-yards 22-176 38-254 Passing yards 160 77 Total yards 336 331 Comp-Att-Int 11-20-0 3-4-0 Punts-Avg 3-24.3 2-31.5 Fumbles-lost 2-0 1-1 Penalties 13-67 3-20 3rd Down Con. 3-of-10 5-of-9 4th Down Con. 1-of-3 2-of-2 Time of Poss. 20:51 27:09 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING – BCHS: Baynard 16165, Burrus 2-6, Stevenson 4-5.
PCHS: J. Williams 20-189, Dowling 18-65.
PASSING – BCHS: Burrus 11-20-0 160. PCHS: Dowling 2-3-0 33, J. Williams 1-1-0 44.
RECEIVING — BCHS: Stevenson 6-95, Priest 3-17, Lamons 1-39, Graham 1-9. PCHS: J. Stone 264, Henderson 1-13.
