Lafayette closes out spring with game at Northwest
The Lafayette Ramblers closed the book on spring practice Friday night with a fourth-quarter scrimmage against Class AAAA Northwest Whitfield in Tunnel Hill as the weather provided early fall-like temperatures for the fans in attendance.
Northwest took the opening possession at its own 30-yard line and used a 19-yd catch by tight end Jase Talley to move the ball near midfield.
Jaden Morris stepped up and sacked quarterback Owen Brooker on the next play to back the Bruins up seven yards, but back-to-back Lafayette penalties was followed by a screen pass that Isaiah Foster converted into a 54-yard touchdown. The first of four Grant Holder extra points gave Northwest a 7-0 lead less than two minutes into the contest.
Following an exchange of punts, Lafayette took over at its own 40 and used a 48-yard completion from Khalas Finley to Morris to move the ball down to the Bruins’ 25-yard line. Two runs, one by Morris and one by Dawson Pendergrass, got the ball down to the 11, but the drive would stall out and the Ramblers had to settle for a 29-yard Jacob Brown field goal with 4:16 left in the period.
Northwest answered quickly, needing just 1:15 to cover 70 yards. The big play of the drive was the final one as Brooker hit Hudson Gray on a 48-yard scoring strike to make it a 14-3 game with 3:01 left in the opening quarter.
The Ramblers responded with their most impressive drive of the half. The 14-play, 75-yard march took nearly six minutes off the clock and included four third-down conversions and one fourth-down conversion. The final third-down conversion was a 4-yard TD run by Finley and Brown’s kick made it 14-10 with 9:04 left in the half.
Kadin Smith came up with an interception for Lafayette three plays later to get the ball back for the Orange-andBlack. However, the Ramblers were forced to punt near midfield and the Bruins went back to work on their ensuing possession.
Gray hauled in a 21-yard reception off a tipped ball and two more short completions moved it out to the 50yard line. Two plays later, Brooker launched a pass into the cool Tunnel Hill night and was rewarded with a juggling 45-yard catch in the end zone by Foster as the Bruins extended their lead to 21-10.
Lafayette’s next possession was hampered by a big loss due to a high snap, followed by an interception by Northwest’s Braxton Floyd, and the Bruins offense would cash in four plays later. A ball that was almost intercepted by Lafayette, came down in the hands of Kin-kin Douglas, which resulted in a 29-yard TD catch with 2:45 left on the clock and the Bruins ultimately took a 28-10 lead into halftime.
Morris helped prevent a final Northwest
score by picking off Brooker on a diving grab with 30 seconds left on the clock.
Finley, who got the start with Zach Barrett on the sidelines with an injury, went 8 of 19 for 132 yards and the one interception in the first half, adding nine yards on 10 carries. The Ramblers ran 20 times for 32 yards. Pendergrass picked up 12 yards on six carries and Morris had nine yards on three rushing attempts.
Morris (four catches) and Pendergrass (three catches) each had 66 yards through the air. Sam Hall had a run and catch for two total yards. Nick Adams punted twice for a 32.5-yard average, but the Ramblers fumbled twice, losing one, and were penalized nine times for 75 yards in two quarters of varsity play.
“I was really pleased with the effort of the varsity kids in the first half,” head coach Andy Scott said. “I thought we played extremely hard. We did give up three deep balls, although two of them were heavily contested. I felt like our kids learned some things.
“I’m not very pleased with the amount of penalties we had, but I was pleased with our aggressiveness and how hard we played. I thought we were very physical, we just have to shore up some things.”
Ricky Jackson also broke up a pass for the Lafayette defense. Brooker was 16 of 22 for 272 yards, but the Bruins’ running game was held to minus-11 yards on five carries.
Junior varsity players and varsity back-ups played the third quarter, while both teams’ freshmen worked in the
fourth. Lafayette drove all the way to the Northwest 2-yard line as the third quarter came to a close.
Picking up where the JV left off, the rookie Ramblers appeared to have scored on a Dax Edwards’ fourthdown keeper on the first play of the period, only to have it erased by a holding call.
Tailback Joseph Brown nearly got into the end zone on the ensuing play, but once again the play was flagged for holding, backing Lafayette up to the 30. The Orange-and-black responded with a 30-yard TD pass from Edwards to a wide-open Jayven Williams, but that score was also disallowed as the Ramblers were whistled for having an illegal man downfield.
Edwards had a nice individual effort on the next play, reversing his field on a scramble and nearly breaking it for a score, but he was brought down short of the line to gain and the Bruins took over at their own 35.
Northwest would score on a 65-yard, penalty-free run one play later and the Bruins added two more scores in the fourth. Lafayette got back on the board with 1:13 to play on a 48-yard scoring scamper by Porter Sentell.
“For the young kids in the second half, we just have to continue to work with them,” Scott added. “We’re blessed to have 40 more of them than we had at this point last year. We’ve got a ton of kids and we wanted to make sure we played everyone tonight, and we did, so that was something else we’re very proud of.”