Bruins lose bear battle

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The Cherokee Tribune/DAYTON P. STRICKLAND Creekview’s Will Kirby (26) tries to shake the tackle by Northwest Whitfield’s Trevon Tucker (35) in first half action Friday night at Creekview in Cherokee County.

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September 4, 2010

By Jamie Jones jamiejones@daltoncitizen.com The Dalton Daily Citizen Sat Sep 04, 2010, 12:48 AM EDT

CANTON — In the battle of the bears, the Grizzlies had more bite.

The Bruins had too much movement.

The Northwest Whitfield offense racked up 13 costly illegal motion penalties, missed three field goals and remained scoreless in 2010, losing to Creekview 18-0 in front of a boisterous home crowd. Not only has Northwest failed to crack the scoreboard, the Bruins fell to 0-2. Creekview went the other direction, improving to 2-0.

“That’s a good football team and we’re right there with them,” Northwest head coach Mike Falleur said. “We feel like we had every opportunity to win the game. We played good enough to win. We’ve gotta quit shooting ourselves in the foot.”

Falleur couldn’t pinpoint the reason for the avalanche of false starts and illegal procedure calls. Maybe it was the Creekview’s defense yelling, “Go!” while shifting shortly before the snap. Maybe it was a lack of concentration. Maybe it was the coaching.

Senior defensive back Luke Woodason thought the rowdy Creekview student section — with some students blowing the droning vuvuzela made infamous during soccer‘s World Cup — contributed to the false start problem.

“We played great,” said Woodason, who was forced to leave the game after spraining his ankle — the same ankle that kept him out of the opener. “We just want to be in position to win every game, and that’s where we were tonight.”

The first quarter for Northwest was reminiscent of last week’s shutout loss to Lambert when the Bruins were down 4-0 early because of two safeties.

On the first snap of the game against Creekview, the ball sailed over Bruins’ quarterback Silas Ledford’s head and into the end zone, where he fell on the loose ball for a safety.

Northwest had a prime scoring opportunity early in the second half. After safety Garret Smith recovered a Creekview fumble, Northwest took over on its own 16. Running back Alex Heard took the handoff up the middle and was lost in a sea of defenders. He broke free and raced along the Northwest sideline until he was tackled at the Creekview 7-yard line.

But the Bruins couldn’t keep the momentum. A false start penalty, a three-yard rushing loss, two more false start penalties and a touchdown drop left Northwest with fourth and goal at its own 25. Kicker Jorge Solorzano missed a 42-yard field goal — his second miss of the half.

The Bruins trailed 5-0 at halftime.

To open the second half, the Bruins held the Grizzlies to a missed field goal. The Northwest offense was unable to capitalize — despite a 23-yard run by Nathan Sistrunk — and was forced to punt. However, kicking from its own 48, the Creekview defense blocked the punt. Defensive back Keith Woods scooped up the loose ball and rambled 33 yards for the touchdown. A missed extra point left the Northwest deficit at 11-0.

But again, penalties slowed Northwest drives throughout the second half. An impressive 42-yard quarterback keeper by Colter Creswell helped the Bruins get in position for another field goal chance. The 41-yard attempt was no good.

Creekview put the game away with Jay El-Amin’s 65-yard touchdown run with 35 seconds left in the game,

“I saw the cutback lane, and I just gave it all I could and took off,” El-Amin said. “It was a very big win. We’re supposed to be one of the top two teams in the region. To be able to win the game was amazing.”

Heard carried the load offensively for the Bruins, with 11 carries for 103 yards. Defensive back Garrett Smith had a fumble recovery.

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