Watkins Memorial pulls away from Brooke in second half
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WELLSBURG -- Things looked great for the Brooke Bruins at halftime.
Head coach Mac McLean's team lead 4-1 Watkins Memorial 7-3 at the break and its defense held the Warriors to a 38-yard field goal and 94 yards of total offense.
Then again, Brooke managed only 69 with 47 coming on its opening drive. That drive resulted in seven points. The next scoring drive didn't come until late in the fourth.
Watkins Memorial scored 32-straight points and left Brooke Memorial Stadium with a hard-fought 32-14 victory.
Despite the scoring output, the Warriors offense managed only two TDs and a pair of Jody Katz field goals.
Two touchdowns were generated by the defense and the two touchdown-scoring drives began with turnovers.
"That fourth quarter, we were not doing the things that we needed to do," McLean lamented as his team fell to 3-2 after a 3-0 start. "We had bad snaps, bad throws into space, broken plays, and no team can win when you are doing that.
"But take nothing away from Watkins Memorial. They are a tough team and they are 5-1 for a reason."
McLean did mention a couple of no-calls on what he and many on the Brooke sideline felt were holding penalties that helped lead to a Drew Samsal to Andrew Kirk scoring pass to put the visitors up 16-7, making it a two-score game.
Both came from the same area as the Warriors' right tackle was having major issues keeping Brooke's Tyler Wise (6-4, 205) out of the backfield.
Wise was disruptive throughout the game. McLean was pleased with his performance, but noted that it's hard to celebrate individual victories in a team loss.
"I think Tyler showed he's got some potential at the next level," McLean said. "That kid is good sized lineman and he's probably getting some looks too and he was unable to block Tyler.
"But we don't want to single anyone out when we came up short as a team."
Brooke never managed to get the run game going but kept hammering away with Gavin Moore often enough to try and keep the defense honest. During the first scoring drive, a couple of encroachment penalties, plus a few key scrambles from Braelyn Sperringer help the Bruins get into scoring position with Sperringer finding Colten Palmer form eight yards out.
The next series, WM started sending Victor Oliver and John Banks blitzing off the corner at various times to disrupt the Bruins' offense.
And it worked.
"They were certainly disruptive," admitted McLean.
After the break, it took just three plays for things to turn sour for the Bruins. Cooper Hunt intercepted a Sperringer pass a the 32 and returned it to the 14/
The defense attempted to stifle the scoring drive, stuffing Gerald Banks on first down and sacking Samsal for a loss of three on second. But Banks finally got free on third down, running in from 16 out with 9:08 left in the third.
After the team's traded punts, Brooke started to put a drive together, but Sperringer's pass out wide to Ty Sperringer was a bit high, and a bit backwards, as the ball slipped through the receivers hands and was recovered as a fumble.
Eight plays later, Samsal found Kirk. Brooke drove again, only o see a 33 yard field goal attempt fall short.
After forcing a punt that was downed at the Bruins' 3, disaster struck later on third down. A snap back to Sperringer sailed high and the players scrambled for the loose ball. Oliver eventually picked it up in the end zone for a defensive touchdown.
Three players later and John Apel returned a Sperringer pass 22 yards for a pick six. Brooke tacked on a late TD pass from Sperringer to Anthony Bachinski but the game was all but over at that point.
Sperringer finished with 210 yards passing with two TDs and interceptions, apiece. Samsal led Watkins with 87 yards passing while Banks totaled 52 on the ground as Brooke outgained the visitors 258 to 177.
Watkins Memorial 32, Brooke 14
Watkins Memorial 0 3 13 19 — 32
Brooke 7 0 0 8 - 14
B - Palmer 8 pass from B.Sperringer (Sacripanti kick)
W - Katz 38 FG
W - Banks 16 run (Katz kick)
W — Kirk 2 pass from Samsal (kick fails)
W - Oliver recovered fumble in end zone (Katz kick)
W - Apel 23 INT return (kick fails)
W - Katz 28 FG
B - Bachinski 18 pass from B.Sperringer (Sacripanti kick)
Rushing: Watkins Memorial 26-90-td (Samsal 9-35; Banks 14-52-td; Apel 1-2, Long 1-2, Kellett 1-(-1)); Brooke 22-48 (Moore 13-29; B.Sperringer 5-2; T.Sperringer 2-13; Campinelli 2-4).
Passing: Watkins Memorial 16-29-87-td (all by Samsal); Brooke 18-30-210-2td-2int (all by B. Sperringer).
Receiving: Watkins Memorial 16-87-td (Kirk 4-19-td; Ricketts 7-40; Hulse 1-14; Apel 2-9; Banks 2-5); Brooke 18-210-2td (Bachinski 7-89-td; Palmer 5-82-td; Campinelli 3-23; Moore 1-3; T.Sperringer 2-7).
First Downs: Watkins Memorial 13; Brooke 13
Penalties: Watkins Memorial 10-72; Brooke 4-50
Fumbles: Watkins Memorial 0-0; Brooke 3-2