for third straight victory
Jay Graham
Gerard Bullock
LAKE WACCAMAW - Behind a defense that yielded a minus-11 yards and an offense that accumulated a total of 402 yards, the East Columbus Gators stormed to their third straight win Friday night by shutting out the visiting Red Springs Red Devils 39-0 in a non-conference football game.
Jay Graham started in place of injured quarterback Alex Williamson and scored three of the Gator touchdowns while rushing for 88 yards and passing for 94.
Coach Travis Conner’s Gators led 21-0 at halftime and 33-0 after three quarters.
Red Springs, which suffered its fourth straight loss, was held to a total of 37 plays, losing two fumbles and having a pass intercepted.
“I’ve never been associated with any team that has held an opponent for minus yardage in an entire game,” Coach Conner said. “We played with a lot of intensity.”
Graham, a senior who is playing football for the first time at East Columbus, scored on runs of 12, 6 and 21 yards.
“Jay did a great job stepping in and running the offense,” Conner said. “We wanted to give Alex an extra week to recover from the knee injury he got against West Bladen.”
The Gators also got touchdowns on a pair of two-yard runs by Quintin Ashe and Fred Blanks.
The other ECHS touchdown came when B.J. Bracey returned the second-half kickoff 68 yards for a touchdown. Luther Hawkins kicked three extra points as the Gators upped their record to 3-1.
Gator safety Demetrius McKelvie came up with his fourth interception of the season while helping lead the defense along with Gerard Bullock, Jolly Jacobs, Petey Graham, Greg Dudley and Travis Campbell.
East Columbus, which finished 3-9 last season and 0-11 in 2005, had a total of 308 yards rushing. Blanks led the way with 105 yards on only seven carries while Ashe had 60 yards on nine carries.
East Columbus will close out its non-conference schedule this Friday when it travels to Rowland to take on the South Robeson Mustangs.
South Robeson is coming off its first win of the season, a 47-0 romp over North Moore. The Mustangs had opened their season with pair of 20-15 losses to the currently unbeaten squads of Hobbton and Lakewood.
RS |
EC |
||
| First downs | 2 |
17 |
|
| Rushes-yards | 32-(11) |
43-308 |
|
| Yards passing | 0 |
94 |
|
| Passes | 0-5-1 |
5-9-1 |
|
| Fumbles-lost | 4-20 |
7-55 |
|
| Penalties-yards | 4-20 |
7-55 |
|
| Punts-avg. | 6-30 |
0 |
| Red Springs | 0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
- |
0 |
| E. Columbus | 14 |
7 |
12 |
6 |
- |
39 |
EC - Graham 12 run (Luther Hawkins (kick).
EC - Quintin Ashe 2 run (Hawkins kick).
EC - Graham 6 run (Hawkins kick failed).
EC - B.J. Bracey 68 kickoff return (kick failed).
EC - Fred Blanks 2 run (kick failed).
EC - Graham 21 run (kick failed).