Brown leads Eagles past Panthers in rout
Life comes at you fast sometimes. Atascocita comes at you faster.
Instead of heading to the locker room in a tie, the Eagles overwhelmed C.E. King with three touchdowns in the final 1:38 of the first half, turning a previously tight game into a runaway 42-21 win Saturday at Turner Stadium.
“I figured it’d be a tough game,” Atascocita coach Craig Stump said. “They were undefeated, and we were undefeated in district, and I think our schedule helped us out. We were able to get a big win with a sophomore quarterback (Zion Brown) who hadn’t played much.”
The victory elevated area 6A No. 3 Atascocita to 7-1 overall, and 4-0 in District 21-6A.
No. 5 C.E. dropped to 6-1, 2-1 with its first setback of the season.
“We’re a better team than this,” King coach Derek Fitzhenry said. “So we need to do a better job of coaching, and regroup, figure out what we did wrong and move on. We’ve got a lot of football left to play, and at the end of the day, I don’t think this reflected who we are. Maybe we got a little full of ourselves and didn’t come in prepared, and that’s on us.”
The two top-five teams went back and forth through the first 22 minutes.
Atascocita’s first touchdown came on a flea flicker, with Brown — in his second start in place of injured starter Gavin Session, who is out for the season — hitting wide receiver Keith Wheeler downfield for a 65-yard score after a pitchback from running back Tyras Winfield. But on Atascocita’s next possession, Brown lost a fumble, and defensive lineman Zaylon Davis scooped and scored on a seven-yard, game-tying return.
The Eagles answered with a nine-play, 52-yard scoring drive capped by Winfield’s three-yard touchdown run. Then King responded on its next possession — a seven-play, 72-yard march RB Jerrell Wimbley finished on a 35-yard TD run.
Wimbley’s score tied it 1414 with 4:49 left in the first half.
That was plenty of time for Atascocita.
A 28-yard punt return by Chase Sowell sparked the Eagles’ big first-half finish.
The return put them at King’s 38, where Winfield went to work, supplying runs of 30, four and four yards, with his third carry giving the Eagles a 21-14 edge with 1:38 left in the second quarter. Linebacker Jonah Caseltine — who also recorded a big sack in the first quarter — intercepted QB Nehemiah Brousard on King’s next possession, setting up Winfield’s third rushing touchdown on a 24yard run only 28 seconds later.
Then Knowledge Davis made his presence known.
The senior defender forced a fumble on a sack of Brousard, then pounced on the loose ball at King’s 10yard line.
Three plays later, Brown found tight end Spencer Henslee for an eight-yard TD.
After reaching the end zone three times in 1 minute, 28 seconds, the Eagles sprinted into halftime with a 35-14 advantage. “That was really big,” Stump said. “When somebody turns the ball over you’ve got to be able to take advantage of it.”
The Eagles sealed the win with a 13-play, 52-yard scoring drive that chewed up 5:13.
Brown provided the score on a five-yard run. He finished 9-of-19 through the air for 141 yards and two touchdowns.
“He did a lot of good things,” Stump said.