Ewing gets it done with defense and special teams
EWING TWP. >> It would be interesting to see how good the Ewing High football team could be if it ever stops making things so difficult on itself.
On a night in which Ewing continued to be flagged for way too many penalties and employed some questionable clock management, the Blue Devils still found a way to hold off Nottingham, 17-14, in an early-season matchup of undefeated teams.
For the most part this was a defensive battle with a couple of big specialty team plays thrown in. In the end it was the Ewing defense that delivered the goods as it held Nottingham off the board from the middle of the first quarter until late in the fourth.
The guy who makes Ewing really go, of course, is senior quarterback Edamiyon Doggett. Nottingham, however, had the answer for him in the first half by simply keeping him off the field.
Nottingham (2-1) opened the game with a classic 71-yard, 14-play drive that chewed nearly seven minutes off the clock and was capped by a 3-yard TD run around left end by Jonathan Jacobs.
The next time the Northstars got the ball they put together another long drive from their own 36 to the Ewing 18. This drive didn’t produce any points after a 32-yard field goal was short, but it also meant the Ewing offense only had two possessions in the entire first half.
The second Blue Devil possession did produce some points on a 27-yard field goal by Matt Hunkele with :48 remaining Ewing quarterback Edamiyon Doggett scrambles for an 18-yard gain and a first down against Nottingham on Friday.
in the second quarter, but it was the Northstars that walked off the field with a 10-7 lead at the half.
This all changed in a hurry at the start of the third quarter. As in a real hurry when Tyquan Parker received the kickoff and bolted 85 yards up the middle for a touchdown to electrify another sizable home crowd.
The Ewing fans were shortly in an even better mood when their team forced a punt and quickly took a 17-7 lead on a perfectly-led 15-yard from Doggett to Corey McKinnon in the back of the end zone.
Prior to his touchdown pass, Doggett had actually been forced from the game with an ankle injury.
To his vast credit, sophomore quarterback Tyrique Alston did a great job temporarily filling in and ripped off three runs for 23 yards prior to Doggett’s return.
The rest of the third quarter and most of the fourth was all about the Ewing defense, which got big sacks fom Nestor Santiago and Alon Walker to keep Nottingham quarterback Deonte West running for his life. Terrance Stokes II also had a thirdquarter interception on an evening in which the Northstars were able to complete just six of 11 passes for 54 yards.
With the clock running down late in the fourth quarter, it looked like Ewing
was safe. Safe, that is, until it go thrown for a loss on third down on an apparent pass play and then had a punt blocked by wrestler Devion Stokes.
Taking over deep in Ewing territory following the blocked punt, Nottingham scored on the very next play when West connected with Jeffrey Davis on a 20-yard crossing pattern to cut the Ewing lead to 17-14.
With just 3:01 remaining and out of time outs, Nottingham was forced to go for an onsides kick. When the kick sailed out of bounds, Ewing was then able to kill most of the clock before punting in the final seconds. This gave Nottingham time for
one last hail mary pass, which was intercepted as the Blue Devil players poured onto the field.
In addition to the obvious fact it is now 3-0, perhaps the biggest postitive for Ewing was it was still able to win on a night in which its offense struggled. Doggett was held to 118 passing yards on 15 attempts and could manage only 68 yards on the ground.
If Ewing can ever put everything all together and play smart, watch out!
N-Jacobs 3 run (Cabrera kick) E-Hunkele 27 field goal E-Parker 85 kickoff return (Hunkele kick) E-McKinnon 15 pass from Doggett (Hunkele kick) N-Davis 20 pass from West (Cabrera kick)