By By BRIAN HAINES, Sports Writer
JAMESVILLE — Forget the ghosts and goblins, on this Halloween night it was the Creswell rushing attack that was downright scary.
Tigers’ running backs Gary Blount, Davonte Phelps, Ralpheon Owens and Timmele Sawyer led the charge as they combined for 316 yards on 31 carries in Creswell’s 41-8 win over Jamesville.
For the past few years Creswell (7-1, 7-0) has been on the receiving end of blowout losses to the Bullets, but on Friday the tables were turned.
The Tideland Conference champs didn’t get off to a fast start, as the Jamesville defense kept them off the scoreboard in the first quarter.
The Bullets struck first when quarterback Japaul Whitehurst connected with Bob Lilley, who dashed 22 yards down the right sideline to give them an 8-0 lead near the end of the first quarter.
The Bullets would never reach the end zone again.
The Creswell defense dominated over the next three quarters as it tallied two interceptions that led directly to Tigers touchdowns, and limited Jamesville to 38 rushing yards on 23 carries.
Jamesville coach Richie Ange said the biggest difference in his team’s Senior Night loss was the play up front.
Aside from overcoming the Bullets’ defense, the Tigers also had to overcome a whopping disparity in penalties as they were flagged 13 times (120 yards) compared to Jamesville two penalties for 10 yards.
However, Creswell was able to continually grind out the ball, until one of its backs broke out for a big run.
Gary Blount put the Tigers on the board in the second when his 12-yard TD dash helped tie the game at 8-8.
Sawyer struck next, then struck two more times to put the game out of reach. Creswell’s big, speedy back scored on runs of 49, 60 and 40 yards, amassing 149 rushing yards on TDs alone.
The back-breaker for the Bullets came at the end of the first half. Down only 16-8, Jamesville had the ball with under a minute left in the half and was trying to even up the game heading into the break.
Whitehurst took a snap from shot gun at his own 45, when the Tigers were able to get pressure on him and cause him to fumble. The loose ball was quickly picked up by Creswell and ran 40 yards into the end zone to make it a 22-8 game at the end of two quarters.
After halftime, the Tigers intercepted Whitehurst on each of the Bullets’ first two possession and scored were able to capitalize both times.
Creswell Jamesville
8 First Downs 8
31-316 Rushes-Yards 23-38
84 Passing Yards 95
6-11-1 Pass-Comp-Int 6-14-2
3-28 Punting 5-29
3-1 Fumbles-Lost 3
13-120 Penalties 2-10
Creswell 0 22 6 13 — 41
Jamesville 8 0 0 0 — 8
Scoring Summary
J — Bob Lilley 22 pass from Japaul Whitehurst (Justin Barr two points), 1:34, 1st.
C — Gary Blount 12 run (Shaveon Spear two points), 5:06, 2nd.
C — Timmele Sawyer 49 run (Speer two points), 1:09, 2nd.
C — #40 fumble recovery 30 yards (Ralpheon Owens kick failed), :40, 2nd.
C — Sawyer 60 run (two points falied), 8:57, 3rd.
C — Sawyer 40 run (Owens kick), 9:49 4th.
C — Davonte Phelps 26 run, 0:00, 4th.