7X7 Are Grassfield's Lucky Numbers
When the 2009 high school football season starts in a few months, Tyler Clark hopes he's as accurate as he was during the Peanut City 7X7 tournament on Saturday.
The rest of the Southeastern District had better hope he's not.
The Grassfield junior opened the event's championship game with eight straight completions and finished the contest 13-of-15, helping his team to a 29-7 defeat of Lakeland in the North division championship at King's Fork. Clark, whose squad made it to the playoffs last season in just its second season of existence, hopes to start for the Grizzlies in their season opener Sept. 3 at Nansemond River (they'll visit Fork again on Oct. 9).
"We knew we had to stay focused," said Clark, whose team also beat Woodside, McDonough, King's Fork, and College Prep World, an intramural team from Prince William County, in the event (Prep World knocked state champion Oscar Smith out of Saturday's tourney). "We were tired, but we kept working hard. We've been working hard at practice, and that made it easier out here. This gives us a lot of confidence that we can stay with these teams, and now we have to carry it over to the field."
Over 20 teams from across the state headed to Suffolk for the event, said Fork athletic director Randy Jessee.
"This is an opportunity for teams to play some of the best competition on the East Coast," Jessee said (the event also raised money for Fork's athletic programs). "Teams use the seven-on-seven drills that they use in practice to hone their passing skills."
In 20-minute, one-hand touch games, teams started from the opposing squad's 40 yard line, and had four downs to go 20 yards, four more to score. Passing was the only offense allowed - no handoffs, pitchouts, or quarterback sneaks. Touchdowns were worth seven points (no extra points), and interceptions were worth three. If a team didn't score on a respective fourth down, the defense racked up a pair of points.
After an early interception gave Grassfield a 3-0 lead, Clark's clinic began, as he tossed a quick touchdown pass to Tony Patrick for a 10-0 lead. Another interception got the Grizzlies up 13-0, and Clark went back to work, this time finishing things off with a strike to Rudy Rudolph.
Deonta Neal got the Cavaliers on the board with a touchdown snare from Walter Boykins, but the Grizzly defense held for a 22-7 lead, and Patrick caught another scoring pass to end things.
"This raises our confidence a lot," Patrick said. "Last year, we made it to the playoffs, and we want to look deeper into the playoffs this year."
Things started off in the opposite direction for Caroline (Fredericksburg) in South division competition, as the Cavaliers let Bethel slip away 21-20 in their first game, then watched King's Fork run away with the second (the Bulldogs fielded two teams for the event).
But then things started to click for Caroline. The squad roared past Grafton 35-7, then hung on for a 30-21 defeat of Grafton as the elimination round began. They shut down Maury 19-9, and headed to the title game against Indian River.
Both defenses held early for a 2-2 tie, and Cole Nebb picked off a Joseph Shifflett pass to give the Braves 5-2 lead. The Cavalier defense held again to cut the lead to 5-4.
A few penalties against the Braves moved the Cavaliers inside the 10, and Quinton Broaddas gave Caroline its first lead of the day by yanking home a Shifflett pass.
Lamont Smith gave the Cavaliers three more points and the ball with an interception, then got the team within scoring range with a long catch from Shifflett. One Broaddas score later, the Cavaliers were up 20-5.
The River offense finally got rolling, as Myron Blueford caught a touchdown pass to get to 20-12. The Brave defense held, cutting the lead to 21-14 with less than a minute to play. But their drive died at the 20, and Caroline had escaped.
"We just gutted it out and got first place," said Broaddas, whose squad just missed the Battlefield district playoffs last season with a 6-4 record. "We were hearing that (River) was one of the best, so we knew we had to play our 'A' game."
