Green Run survives penalties, turns back Bayside’s upset bid

VIRGINIA BEACH — K’Saan Farrar threw for 222 yards and four touchdowns Friday night to help rally No. 3 Green Run past Bayside 28-14.

The Stallions (6-0) got off to a sluggish start after a slew of firsthalf penalties — 14 for 144 yards — that allowed visiting Bayside (3-4) to stay toe-to-toe with them. Marlins quarterback Kam Kirby scored on a 4-yard TD run to even the score at 14 with less than 12 seconds remaining before halftime.

“We came out of halftime with a different mindframe,” Green Run coach Brandon Williams said. “The first half, we were worried about the wrong things and made some dumb penalties and that stopped some drives — big-time penalties are big-time drive-killers.”

Noah Baldwin snagged an interception for the Stallions to halt a seven-play Bayside drive in the third quarter. Three plays later, Farrar tossed a 19-yard TD score to Jayden Anderson — their third connection of the evening — to put Green Run ahead for good.

“They came out on us in ‘man,’ ” said Anderson, who finished with 147 yards on four catches — including TDs of 44 and 65 yards in the first half. We “checked with the coaches, if they press, we go deep and get in the end zone.”

Anderson “kept getting open, so I had to keep getting him the ball,” Farrar added. “They would change up their coverages and he would get open immediately, so I had to get him the ball the best way I could.”

Farrar and Anderson connected on those long scoring plays and accounted for 128 of Green Run’s 184 yards to cover up a start-stop offense in a first half marred by flag-inducing mistakes.

Green Run held the Marlins to 167 yards of total offense.

“I’ve been telling them since day one, we’re our own worst enemy. We know what type of talent we’ve got on this team and we’ve got to stay out of our own way,” Williams said. “We’re going to take that into the film room this week and we’re going to clean it up and come back next weekend.

“We can’t have that type of stuff if we want to get on a championship run.”