Published: 01:04 AM, Sat Sep 04, 2010
Terry Sanford nips Gray's Creek in shootout
By Thomas Pope
Assistant sports editor
Terry Sanford versus Gray's Creek was supposed to be a football game.
It turned out to be a track meet, with four players rushing for triple-digit yardage Friday night. The teams combined for 103 points and nearly 1,000 yards of total offense, and when time finally ran out, Terry Sanford was able to escape with a 54-49 win.
"I've never been in a game where I had two backs over 200 yards, scored 49 points and didn't win," Gray's Creek coach David Lovette said.
His counterpart, Wayne Inman, was relieved that his Bulldogs had the last possession: "I guarantee you if (Gray's Creek) had gotten the ball back there at the end, they'd have won the football game."
Anthony Hobbs led Terry Sanford (2-1) with a mammoth effort, running for 303 yards and five touchdowns. Gray's Creek countered with the 1-2 punch of Jonathan Chiles (233 yards, two scores) and Devonte Cooley (231 yards, five touchdowns), but dropped to 1-2 on the season.
Hobbs had 212 yards at halftime, and Terry Sanford took the upper hand for good with a 27-point second quarter and a 34-14 lead at the break.
The Bears didn't call it quits, bouncing back with 21 points to trail 40-35 after three periods.
In the opening moments of the fourth, Terry Sanford quarterback Dante McDonald made amends for two third-quarter fumbles that helped revive Gray's Creek. On fourth-and-16 at the Bears' 33, McDonald weaved through the defense for a touchdown.
Shawn McNair's 53-yard return on the ensuing kickoff set the table for the Gray's Creek backs again, and Chiles scored with 8:38 to play to cut Terry Sanford's lead to 47-42.
With the help of a 26-yard completion from McDonald to Justin Wheeler, the Bulldogs drove for another score, Hobbs getting his fifth of the night to give them a 54-42 edge with 4:15 remaining.
And again Gray's Creek rebounded. Cooley erupted for 33 on first down, and a horse-collar penalty on Cameron Bandurraga added an extra 8 yards to give the Bears first and goal.
Cooley scored two plays later and the gap was again five.
But Terry Sanford was able to run out the final 3:12, with McDonald taking a knee on successive snaps to bring an end to the slugfest.
'Moving my feet'
Hobbs said his big night was the result of following his coaches' instructions.
"They told me there'd be cutback lanes," he said, "so I took them. I just kept running, moving my feet."
When asked how Hobbs was able to torch his defense, Lovette's answered with a smile, "I couldn't tell you. If I knew, we would've stopped him.
"He's got great vision and he made some great cutbacks. We'd have him hemmed up and he'd cut it back across the grain. He made some great runs and we didn't make some plays."
Good combination
Inman was equally as impressed with the Cooley-Chiles combo.
"You've got to take your hat off to Gray's Creek," he said. "They never quit, they stayed after the football, and they kept running it down our throat."
Terry Sanford 54, Gray's Creek 49
Terry Sanford
7
27
6
14-54
Gray's Creek
14
0
21
14-49
GC - Jonathan Chiles 26 run (Stephen Nalls kick)
TS - Anthony Hobbs 36 run (Adam Rose kick)
GC - Devonte Cooley 56 run (Nalls kick)
TS - Dante McDonald 11 run (Rose kick)
TS - Hobbs 84 run (kick blocked)
TS - Hobbs 56 run (run failed)
TS - McDonald 27 run (Hobbs run)
GC - Cooley 36 run (Nalls kick)
TS - Hobbs 12 run (run failed)
GC - Cooley 12 run (Nalls kick)
GC - Cooley 14 run (Nalls kick)
TS - McDonald 33 run (Rose kick)
GC - Chiles 6 run (Nalls kick)
TS - Hobbs 9 run (Rose kick)
GC - Cooley 4 run (Nalls kick)
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
Rushing: TS - Hobbs 28-303, McDonald 12-109, Wheeler 3-8. GC - Chiles 22-233, Cooley 20-231, Tory Davis 3-9, McNeill 7-(-4).
Passing: TS - McDonald 1-6-0, 26. GC - Caleb McNeill 2-10-1, 12.
Receiving: TS - Wheeler 1-26. GC - Chiles 1-7, Davis 1-5.
Records: Terry Sanford 2-1, Gray's Creek 1-2.