Final Score:
Sickles 3-0 (1-0) 49
King 1-3 (0-1) 23
Scoring by Quarter:
| 1Q | 2Q | 3Q | 4Q | Final | |
| SICKLES | 14 | 7 | 14 | 14 | 49 |
| KING | 7 | 10 | 6 | 0 | 23 |
The Sickles Gryphons didn’t let a 35-minute lightning delay slow them down as they rushed for well over 300 yards splitting the workload between six backs.
The Gryphons dominated the trenches opening holes that virtually any Sickles’ RB could run though.
“We played hard and physical,” Sickles’ HC Brian Turner said. “We work on our running game hard. Those guys [the offensive line] don’t get the credit they deserve, but they work on their assignments everyday and we have great line coaches.”
Coming into the game it looked like we had the possibility to be involved in a shootout. With the top QB in the area and No. 2 WR on King’s side of the ball, the big question was ‘can Sickles stop them?’
“We put our best corner on No. 8 [Chris Murray] all night and I think he did a great job on him,” Turner said. “We can bring four people and get some pressure so our plan was to stop No. 8 [Murray] and get some pressure on Greg [Windham].
“I thought we could score on them,” Turner continued. “I didn’t know if we could stop them though. Our defense did a great job.”
Sickles’ run game was, simply put, unbelievable. Senior LaDondra Crittenden and sophomore Yhaquille Grant took the majority of the carries with Crittenden rushing 14 times for 129 yards and a touchdown while Grant rushed 15 times for 132 yards. Marcos Vega, a junior, took the ball to the endzone twice on four carries. Junior fullback Jared O’donoghue scored a TD. Freshman Ray McCloud ran for 28 yards and a score.
“We have a very young team,” Turner said, “but our o-linemen are seniors and they’re the backbone of our offense.”
Extremely humbled after the game, Turner was adamant that this game doesn’t mean much.
“It’s just one football,” he explained. “We haven’t done anything yet. Our goal is to make the playoffs and we haven’t done that yet.”
Turner made it clear that this year is a disappointment if this Sickles’ squad misses the playoffs.
“It’s good to be 1-0, but we got Brandon next week and they handled us pretty good last year,” Turner said. “And we still got Armwood, Hillsborough, Jefferson back-to-back-to-back so we’ll find out what this team has then. We still have five more [district] games to go.”
Turner was almost too humble in the win. The Gryphons completely dominated on both sides of the ball. The defense held one of the best WR in the area to three catches for 65 yards, only allowing him into the endzone once (as a WR). Even on the TD reception Sickles had decent coverage on Murray, but he made a circus catch when he completely laid out in the endzone between two defensive backs.
The defensive front for Sickles consistently blew up the Lions’ offensive line. Windham repeatedly was running for his life although he was still able to throw for 162 yards, it was a huge win for Sickles when you look at King’s previous games in which Windham averaged better than 250 yards passing per game. It should also be noted that he and Murray didn’t connect for their 35-yard TD pass until late in the 4th quarter.
Even though Murray was kept at bay on the outside, you knew an athlete of his caliber was bound to get loose. With the score still tight in the first half he took a kick from the three-yard line broke, atleast four tackles and ran from sideline to sideline taking It 97 yards to the house.
Big Games:
Sickles QB Nate Mills 5-11 185: Completed 7/11 111 yards 2 TD 1 INT. The interception is easy to look past. It came on Mills’ first pass attempt, on Sickles first play from scrimmage. It was a bad read by Mills as he rolled right and threw across his body back to the middle of the field. The turnover was negated though; as Carlos Gamba recovered a King fumble.
Sickles WR DeAndre Mathis 6-3 170: Nice size. Good hands. Good blocker. Good speed. Great body control. Kid can do it all. He caught two passes for 63 yards and 2 TD. When Sickles’ RB got to the outside, he was there sealing the corners.
King QB Greg Windham 6-1 190: He is the best QB in this area, which is already very well known. I don’t want to bang the King o-line too much, but saying Windham doesn’t have much to work with up front might be an understatement. Even still he was able to pass for more than 160 yards and run for over 60. It’s very tough to understand what Windham does in and outside of the pocket until you see him play. Nobody else factored running the ball. The offense is run, in every instance, through Windham and when you don’t have time to work, it’s tough.
Sickles (3-0, 1-0) will host Brandon on 09/30 before facing Armwood, Hillsborough, Jefferson in consecutive weeks.
King (1-3, 0-1) will get a small break in its schedule as they face Strawberry Crest and Leto before starting a three-game stretch versus Jefferson, Hillsborough, Armwood.
Twitter: @KyleBennettUT
Email: kbennett.ut@gmail.com