Defense lifts Dan River to victory over William Campbell

RINGGOLD — Dan River’s defense had kept William Campbell’s offense at bay for most of the night. It seemed only fitting that the Wildcats’ defense would seal the game in the final seconds for a 25-18 victory over the Generals on Friday night.

With William Campbell (2-3, 0-1 Dogwood) threatening in Dan River territory in the final sec-onds, Terrence Williams and Arshay Jefferson broke through the Generals’ offensive line for a sack as time expired, giving the Wildcats (4-1, 1-0 Dogwood) a win in their Dogwood District opener.

“Our defense played great in the second half,” Dan River coach Ferrell Edmunds said. “We basically shut them out.”

William Campbell’s only score in the second half came on an 89-yard fumble return by Marcus Alexander, who stripped the ball away from Dan River quarterback Justin Gunter deep in Generals territory. That play, the last of the third quarter, put William Campbell ahead 18-13.

William Campbell coach Dwayne Hamlette hoped that would be the spark his team had been looking for, but the Generals’ lead didn’t hold for long.

“You get one of those plays and you think momentum comes on your side,” Hamlette said. “But the way this game was, no one really had momentum.”
Dan River went ahead 19-18 on R.J. Myers’ 8-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter, and the Wildcats extended their lead to seven on a 42-yard halfback pass from Trey Edmunds to Deon Hairston with 6:21 to play.

“They started putting six, seven or eight in the box all night because they had a hard time stop-ping our run,” Ferrell Edmunds said of William Campbell’s defense. “I figured if we showed sweep, everyone would come up. Trey has a strong arm and he just launched it and Deon, with all his speed, just run underneath it. It was a heck of a call. At that point we felt like we needed a big play.”

The play was a definite boost for the Wildcats, but the game was far from over. The Generals drove up to Dan River’s 30-yard line before the Wildcats’ defense stopped the drive on fourth down. Dan River’s ensuing drive stalled with 39 seconds to play, giving William Campbell one more chance. A 17-yard pass, followed by a roughing the pass penalty gave the Generals an opportunity to strike with one final play, but Devante Easley couldn’t get away from Dan River’s Williams and Jefferson.

The Generals couldn’t capitalize on a pair of early touchdowns that gave them a 12-0 lead. The second came on an odd bounce. Easley completed a pass to Rodell Yuille, who made it 34 yards down the sideline before he was stripped of the ball. The Generals got lucky as Tevin Easley picked up the loose ball and ran it in the final 28 yards.

“(Tevin) made a hustle play, one of those hustle plays you love to see on film,” Hamlette said. “He was just running down the field looking for a block and the ball ended up on the ground and he was able to pick it up and score.”

Dan River finally got on the board at the end of the first half. With no timeouts, the Wildcats started their drive on their own 25-yard line and moved all the way down to the 3-yard line with 2.3 seconds left. An official timeout was taken for the training staff to assist a William Campbell player who was injured on the play. That helped Dan River set up a 3-yard touchdown run by Ezander Shelton as time expired, which fired up the Wildcats entering halftime.

“Just before the half, I felt like we needed to do something crazy to get our kids fired up,” Ferrell Edmunds said. “We were just going through the first half emotionless.”