Stags hold off rally to slip past Patriots


By Dan Brown, The Independent

Saturday, November 7, 2009

MONCKS CORNER -- Berkeley held off a furious second-half comeback to edge Fort Dorchester 33-30 before a packed-house homecoming crowd of 7,500 fans in the teams' regular season finale Friday night.

Evan MacKelvey picked off an Ethan Long pass with 1:16 left in the game to seal the win for the Stags (10-1).

Fort Dorchester (8-3) scored a pair of second-half touchdowns to cut into Berkeley's nine-point fourth-quarter lead and was driving for a possible go-ahead score when MacKelvey snuffed the drive with the pick.

Taking their opening possession of the third quarter, the Stags rode a pair of big plays to score their lone touchdown of the second half, a 67-yard drive that consumed more than seven minutes.

Anthony Simmons took a fake punt for a 15-yard gain for a big first down on fourth-and-long.

Then, faced with a third-and-20, quarterback Bruce Ellington took a sweep right and bolted 44 yards to the Patriots' 3.

Tevin Bradshaw scored from 3 yards out to put the Stags up 33-15 following Nick Hill's extra point.

Following an exchange of turnovers -- an interception by the Stags' Anthony Simmons and a fumble recovery by the Patriots' Antonio Guy -- Ethan Long hit Terrell Jordan for a 28-yard touchdown strike to cut the Berkeley lead to 10 early in the fourth quarter.

After a three-and-out by the Stags, Fort Dorchester was on the move again, riding the Long-to-Rodney Gibbs connection, hitting on three big pass plays, the biggest and fourth-and-19. Long's 27-yard strike to Gibbs set up the Patriots with a first-and-goal on the Berkeley 9-yard line.

Two plays later, Keshon Flores scored his second touchdown of the night, a4-yard run up the middle to cut the Berkeley lead to three, 33-30 with 2:42 left in the game.

Berkeley enters the regular season as the Region 7-AAAA champion, having gone 4-0. Fort Dorchester went 2-2 in 8-AAAA.

B--Dante Richardson 10 run (Patrick Jackson kick)

FD--Keshon Flores 1 run (Malik Wheeler run)

FD--Flores 30 run (Josh Hall kick)

B--R.J. Robinson 3 run (pass failed)

B--Bruce Ellington 23 run (kick failed)

B--Robinson 60 pass from Ellington (Nick Hill kick)

B--Kevin Bradshaw 3 run (Hill kick)

FD--Terrell Jordan 26 pass from Ethan Long (Flores run)

FD--Flores 1 run (Hall kick)




 Local News
 Sports
 Business
 Entertainment
 Features
 Opinion

 Home


Copyright © 1995 - 2009 Evening Post Publishing Co.