Stags subdue Eagles in II-AAAA
BEAUFORT — Berkeley piled up 246 yards rushing and exploited a sputtering night by the Beaufort offense to open the Division II-AAAA playoffs with a 17-7 road victory over the Eagles on Friday.
The Stags (8-4) advance to play South Pointe next week.
Berkeley opened the game with first-down runs on four of its first nine plays, marching 64 yards downfield before settling for a 31-yard field goal.
The Stags missed a field goal after Beaufort fumbled away the ensuing kickoff, but they continued their offensive success. Beaufort's defense failed to cut off tailback Bruce Ellington and quarterback Pernell Irving on the perimeter. The drive ended with Irving exploding 12 yards to put Berkeley up 10-0 with 3:29 left in the first period.
"We had one play, a midline pitch, that was working really well for us, so we kept going back to it," Stags coach Jerry Brown said. "We were able to get some good gains and get off to a fast start."
Still, the Eagles (9-3) responded, finding success behind the power running of Andre Carpenter that pushed them into the red zone. And after Carpenter burst through the line for 18 of his 93 yards, the senior punched in the score from 1 yard out to cut the deficit to 10-7 midway through the second quarter.
But that proved the most Beaufort could muster out of its offense by night's end.
The Eagles converted just five first downs in the next 27 minutes, twice coming up a yard short on fourth down.
"Early in the season, we were a fourth-down team; we made them," Beaufort coach Mark Clifford said, "and late in the season, we didn't."
In Beaufort's regular season win over Berkeley, the Eagles held Ellington to 61 rushing yards. But Ellington surpassed that with one carry Friday as he raced 64 yards for a TD near the end of the first half, making for the bulk of his 152 yards.
Defense ruled a scoreless second half, with the Eagles stopping Berkeley on 4 of 5 tries on third down and the Stags adding to Beaufort's offensive woes by snagging three interceptions.
"Their defense wanted it more than us," said Beaufort quarterback Blake Gruel. "It was a bad night for nothing to work our way. They were playing defense pretty good and we didn't step up like we should have."
It made for a bizarre end to a Beaufort season that had skyrocketed upward with such promise during 9-0 start, only to come crashing down with an unexpected three-game slide.
"It's unexplainable," Gruel said. "I guess we weren't used to losing and we never came back to our peak. It was a good nine-game win streak but a bad way to end my high school career."
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