Arcadia Football Takes Slugfest Over Colonel
The Arcadia football team gutted out a tough 32-28 win over Colonel Richardson Wednesday night. The win improves the Firebirds to 3-3 loss drops the Colonels to 1-4.
The Colonel would open the game with a surprise onside kick, and recover the ball at midfield. Then facing 3rd and 10, quarterback Shawne Bowens would find Eric Joseph for a 46 yard touchdown to give the Colonel the lead. Then after a Firebirds fumble, CR would drive the field again. Once down in the red zone, Bowens would find Zach Hall off the play action to stretch the lead to 14-0.
Then errors began to catch up with CR. The Firebirds would get a 7 yard touchdown run from Tyquan Payton. Then facing 4th and long, Arcadia would go for it. The ball would be intercepted at the 1 yard line, where CR would start their very next drive. The snap would be muffed and CR would give up the safety. The Firebirds would then drive down to the redzone on their ensuing drive and settle for a field goal to cut CR’s lead to 14-12. Arcadia then kept coming and would take the lead after their big fullback Contrel Brown would score on a 1 yard run up the middle. The just before the half, Arcadia would go to their bag of tricks. Jamal Savage would pull off the halfback pass and find Devon Rodgers for the 46 yard touchdown pass with 20 seconds left in the half.
Colonel came out firing in the second half though. They would cap off a long drive with a touchdown run by Apollos Murat off the right side to cut Arcadias lead to 26-22. It looked like the Firebirds had the answer when they broke a 50 yard run, but just before the runner was able to break the plain of the endzone, CR safety AJ Palmer knocked the ball loose from behind, and Maurice Sampson would recover it in the endzone for the touchdown. After a couple personal fouls on Arcadia, Colonel would take the lead after a 60 yard touchdown run by Eric Joseph would put them out in front 28-26.
The Firebirds would have the final answer though. They would down the field, and then facing 3rd and 35, would run up the gut by Savage and mange to pull off the yardage needed to get the first. Just 3 plays later, Arcadia would take the lead after Paul Brown would take a sweep in from the left side. Colonel would have a chance to score but their drive would stall at midfield and would be forced to punt. The Firebirds would nearly run out the clock, but would turn it over with 5 seconds left in the game. CR would try a Hail Mary, but it would fall incomplete as time expired.
Colonel Richardson returns to work this Saturday when they host Cambridge SD at noon.
