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By COREY ROEPKEN Published: A big change of pace at the start of the second half sparked the Elkins High School football team to a come-from-behind 34-16 victory over Kempner Saturday night at Mercer Stadium.
Most importantly for the Knights, the result means they’re heaed to the postseason for the second year in a row and the third time in school history. Elkins (7-2, 4-0) claimed the District 23-5A Zone A title to clinch a berth in the district championship game against Travis.
Elkins and Travis will play Friday night at 7 p.m. at Hall Stadium.
“This is huge because we haven’t beaten Kempner in the last two years,” Elkins coach Robert Crivellari said. “Coach (James) Brown does a good job coaching those guys. I was concerned coming into this game because they have improved immensely since the beginning of the season. I knew they were a team we were going to beat all along.”
While Elkins and Travis will play in the postseason no matter the result of next week’s game, Kempner (4-5, 2-2) must win one of the district’s two zone playoff games to advance. Kempner will play Dulles at on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Mercer Stadium.
Kempner led Elkins, 14-7, at halftime then gave up an 80-yard drive on the opening possession of the third quarter. Elkins running back Dorian Williams tied it with a 7-yard touchdown run.
Just like Hightower did against Kempner last week, Elkins’ first kickoff of the third quarter was an onside kick. Just like Hightower, Elkins recovered it. Five plays later quarterback Jake Burkhalter passed to Kent Hadnot for an 11-yard touchdown and Elkins had a 21-14 lead despite fewer than five minutes elapsing in the quarter.
Those first two drives featured nine passes and five runs. Elkins had the ball four times in the first half and ran 10 running plays against six passing plays.
Crivellari said he knew the Knights needed to pick up the pace.
“We changed the tempo,” he said. “We had to see what they were doing and figure out a few things. We had a few holding penalties we couldn’t overcome. We had to stay patient and find a few things and get clicking. Once we did that we moved the ball pretty well.”
The Elkins defense did its part, too. The Knights limited Kempner to one first down during the next three drives. Kempner had nine in the first half. By the time Kempner got a good drive it trailed by 11 points thanks to Williams’ 12-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.
Zackery Bamijoko put an exclamation point on the defensive stand with an interception late in the game.
“I tagged Kempner as being one of the strongest teams in the zone,” Crivellari said. “I’m just glad our kids came out and played hard tonight, especially our defense in the second half.”
Williams led the Elkins offense with 20 rushes for 103 yards. Demarcus Sherman and Donte Clark also scored rushing touchdowns.
Kempner quarterback Julius White rushed 19 times for 105 yards and one touchdown. Fullback Vedial Johnson rushed 24 times for 72 yards and one touchdown.
ELKINS 34, KEMPNER 16
Elkins 7-0-14-13 – 34
Kempner 0-14-2-0 – 16
SCORE SUMMARY
First quarter
E – Donte Clark 5 run (Nick Coffman kick), 3:57
Second quarter
K – Julius White 8 run (Rafael Villatoro kick), 5:33
K – Vedial Johnson 7 run (Villatoro kick), 0:38
Third quarter
E – Dorian Williams 7 run (Coffman kick), 9:03
E – Kent Hadnot 11 pass from Jake Burkhalter (Coffman kick), 7:35
K – Safey (Elkins punt snap out of end zone), 4:13
Fourth quarter
E – Williams 12 run (pass fail), 8:08
E – Demarcus Sherman 32 run (Coffman kick), 0:42
TEAM STATISTICS
First downs: Elkins 13, Kempner 13
Rushes-Yards: Elkins 26-142, Kempner 51-200
Passing yards: Elkins 118, Kempner 21
Comp-Att-Int: Elkins 13-22-0, Kempner 3-5-1
Punts-Avg: Elkins 3-38.0, Kempner 3-30.7
Fumbles-Lost: Elkins 0-0, Kempner 2-0
Penalties-Yards: Elkins 5-55, Kempner 8-65
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – E: Dorian Williams 20-103, Demarcus Sherman 1-32, Jake Burkhalter 2-14, Donte Clark 1-5, Paije Buchannon 2-4, Team 1- (-16); K: Julius White 19-105, Vedial Johnson 24-72, Jared Scruggs 6-20, Onye Chi-Ukpai 1-19, Edgar Guzman 1- (-16).
RECEIVING – E: Donte Clark 5-54, Paije Buchannon 5-32, Kent Hadnot 2-15, Jason Billy 1-17; K: Vedial Johnson 1-15, Jacob Murillo 1-10, Ony Chi-Ukpai 1- (-4).
PASSING – E: Jake Burkhalter 13-22-0, 118; K: Julius White 3-5-1, 21.
Copyright © 2010 - Houston Community Newspapers Online
By COREY ROEPKEN Published: A big change of pace at the start of the second half sparked the Elkins High School football team to a come-from-behind 34-16 victory over Kempner Saturday night at Mercer Stadium.
Most importantly for the Knights, the result means they’re heaed to the postseason for the second year in a row and the third time in school history. Elkins (7-2, 4-0) claimed the District 23-5A Zone A title to clinch a berth in the district championship game against Travis.
Elkins and Travis will play Friday night at 7 p.m. at Hall Stadium.
“This is huge because we haven’t beaten Kempner in the last two years,” Elkins coach Robert Crivellari said. “Coach (James) Brown does a good job coaching those guys. I was concerned coming into this game because they have improved immensely since the beginning of the season. I knew they were a team we were going to beat all along.”
While Elkins and Travis will play in the postseason no matter the result of next week’s game, Kempner (4-5, 2-2) must win one of the district’s two zone playoff games to advance. Kempner will play Dulles at on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Mercer Stadium.
Kempner led Elkins, 14-7, at halftime then gave up an 80-yard drive on the opening possession of the third quarter. Elkins running back Dorian Williams tied it with a 7-yard touchdown run.
Just like Hightower did against Kempner last week, Elkins’ first kickoff of the third quarter was an onside kick. Just like Hightower, Elkins recovered it. Five plays later quarterback Jake Burkhalter passed to Kent Hadnot for an 11-yard touchdown and Elkins had a 21-14 lead despite fewer than five minutes elapsing in the quarter.
Those first two drives featured nine passes and five runs. Elkins had the ball four times in the first half and ran 10 running plays against six passing plays.
Crivellari said he knew the Knights needed to pick up the pace.
“We changed the tempo,” he said. “We had to see what they were doing and figure out a few things. We had a few holding penalties we couldn’t overcome. We had to stay patient and find a few things and get clicking. Once we did that we moved the ball pretty well.”
The Elkins defense did its part, too. The Knights limited Kempner to one first down during the next three drives. Kempner had nine in the first half. By the time Kempner got a good drive it trailed by 11 points thanks to Williams’ 12-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.
Zackery Bamijoko put an exclamation point on the defensive stand with an interception late in the game.
“I tagged Kempner as being one of the strongest teams in the zone,” Crivellari said. “I’m just glad our kids came out and played hard tonight, especially our defense in the second half.”
Williams led the Elkins offense with 20 rushes for 103 yards. Demarcus Sherman and Donte Clark also scored rushing touchdowns.
Kempner quarterback Julius White rushed 19 times for 105 yards and one touchdown. Fullback Vedial Johnson rushed 24 times for 72 yards and one touchdown.
ELKINS 34, KEMPNER 16
Elkins 7-0-14-13 – 34
Kempner 0-14-2-0 – 16
SCORE SUMMARY
First quarter
E – Donte Clark 5 run (Nick Coffman kick), 3:57
Second quarter
K – Julius White 8 run (Rafael Villatoro kick), 5:33
K – Vedial Johnson 7 run (Villatoro kick), 0:38
Third quarter
E – Dorian Williams 7 run (Coffman kick), 9:03
E – Kent Hadnot 11 pass from Jake Burkhalter (Coffman kick), 7:35
K – Safey (Elkins punt snap out of end zone), 4:13
Fourth quarter
E – Williams 12 run (pass fail), 8:08
E – Demarcus Sherman 32 run (Coffman kick), 0:42
TEAM STATISTICS
First downs: Elkins 13, Kempner 13
Rushes-Yards: Elkins 26-142, Kempner 51-200
Passing yards: Elkins 118, Kempner 21
Comp-Att-Int: Elkins 13-22-0, Kempner 3-5-1
Punts-Avg: Elkins 3-38.0, Kempner 3-30.7
Fumbles-Lost: Elkins 0-0, Kempner 2-0
Penalties-Yards: Elkins 5-55, Kempner 8-65
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – E: Dorian Williams 20-103, Demarcus Sherman 1-32, Jake Burkhalter 2-14, Donte Clark 1-5, Paije Buchannon 2-4, Team 1- (-16); K: Julius White 19-105, Vedial Johnson 24-72, Jared Scruggs 6-20, Onye Chi-Ukpai 1-19, Edgar Guzman 1- (-16).
RECEIVING – E: Donte Clark 5-54, Paije Buchannon 5-32, Kent Hadnot 2-15, Jason Billy 1-17; K: Vedial Johnson 1-15, Jacob Murillo 1-10, Ony Chi-Ukpai 1- (-4).
PASSING – E: Jake Burkhalter 13-22-0, 118; K: Julius White 3-5-1, 21.
Copyright © 2010 - Houston Community Newspapers Online