Eastside vs. Harris County

4SHOT Sports

Football - 2008
Eastside vs. Harris County
By Larry Williams
Aug 28, 2008, 10:00 EST

Eastside soars over Harris County

Eagles ground attack and solid defense key to victory

Sharp Stadium – Covington, GA

I know Eastside RB-Broderick Alexander wanted to strike the Heisman pose after scoring the games first TD but he chilled and looked into the 4SHOT Sports camera instead.

Covington – It was a beautiful night for football in Covington, GA as the homestanding Eagles from Eastside H.S. played host to the Tigers from Harris County H.S. at Sharp Stadium. The way things turned out Eastside Head Coach Rick Hurst and the Eagles weren’t much of a host as the used a mixture of running and passing and solid defense to cage up the Tigers.

Eastside got their season underway with a nice 38-yard kickoff return from return-man Aiken Bridecous that gave them great field position on their own 45-yard line The Eagles offense took over from their and proceeded to march down field behind the power running of FB-Broderick Alexander, who had runs of 8, 8 and 6 yards. Alexander’s 6-yard run resulted in Eastside first touchdown of the season. The PAT by kicker Yanrick Tinker made the score 7:00 with 7:09 left in the first quarter.

The Eagles defense led by DL-Karl Williams, LB-Brandon Petit, DL-Jarrett Hubbard, LB-Hunter Parker and DB-Taylor Head come up with the season first turnover when they forced a Harris County fumble that was recovered by LB-Hunter Parker on the Tigers 35-yard line.

The Eagles highly touted quarterback Justin Wray completed a short pass to RB-Tony Atwater who made a sweet move to pick up 9-yards, moving the ball to the 24-yard line. Wray then hit wide-out Antarius Terrell and Alexander powered his way for eight more yards to the Tigers 12-yard line. A penalty pushed the Eagles back to the sixteen but then on the next play Wray found TE-Tradarious Maddox wide-open in the endzone for a touchdown. Tinker’s PAT made the score 14-0.

Harris County had a tough time all night trying to move the ball with any consistency despite the tough running of fullback Sean Jeppeson. Their defense stiffened somewhat after giving up two early scores. A big sack by DL-Corey Wyrosdick in the second quarter forced an Eagles punt.

Eastside RB-Tony Atwater coughs up the ball after a hit by Harris Co. DB-Lorenzo Dowdell.

With time running down in the half Eastside got the ball back and Wray led them on a long march down field, completing three passes along the way; one was a 16-yard pass and catch to WR-Andrico Bailey that moved the ball to the Harris County 32-yard line.

A couple of plays later RB-Tony Atwater made a couple of nice moves on his way to what appeared to be a 13-yard touchdown run but Harris County DB-Lorenzo Dowdell’s hit forced a fumbled that the Tigers Herbert Pfeiffer recovered in the endzone for a touch-back so the Eagles had to instead took a 14-0 lead into the half.

Eastside continued to play solid defense and use their powerful ground attack in the second half to wear down the Tigers. Wray was finally rewarded for his outstanding play scoring on a 20-yard run and running back Greg Griffieth topped off the scoring with a short touchdown plunge that gave Coach Hurst and his Eagles a satisfying 28-0 opening season win over Harris County.