Gretna comes from behind, routs Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE — They didn’t trail by 14 points all of last season. But being down 14-0 a little more than 14 minutes into this year did not affect the Gretna Hawks.

It just got them warmed up.

Jayme Barksdale, filling in for injured quarterback Nick Miller, accounted for six touchdowns and the Hawks (1-0) smothered Martinsville during the last 34 minutes of the game to pull away with a 44-21 victory on Saturday.

It was Barksdale’s coming out party, as the quarterback accounted for 256 of Gretna’s 453 yards of offense. That output helped overcome three lost fumbles by the Hawks that led to the Bulldogs’ two early first-half touchdowns.

“Basically, we came out a little off,” said Barksdale. “We just picked it up and did what we usually do.”

And that was overcoming the first-game jitters, according to Gretna coach Chris Thurman, who had to find a way to break past the nine- and 10-man fronts that Martinsville kept showing on defense.

The Hawks gave Martinsville (0-1) a heavy dose of inside runs and short screen plays, sometimes resulting in major gains that wore down the home team as the heat of the summer day continued to climb.

“We let down, mentally. We got tired in the first half and we kind of let them back in it,” said Martinsville coach Matt Foutz. “In the second half, I thought we gave what we had. First half, we had some more in the tank and weren’t willing to give it. We let them back in (the game).”

It allowed the Hawks to claw back into a contest that was seemingly in the Bulldogs’ control, as Barksdale found the end zone on a 34-yard run and then connected with Ted Jennings on a 28-yard touchdown strike on fourth down as the half came to a close.

“We came out and didn’t execute very well on offense,” said Thurman. “We were lucky to get it back to 14-12 at half.”

That letdown Foutz mentioned carried into the second half as the Hawks accounted for 231 of their 327 rushing yards after intermission, eating the clock and leaving Bulldogs in their wake.

Andre Dickerson, who was making his first varsity appearance, rushed for 95 yards — all in the second half — and added a touchdown. Darien Jefferson did not get many carries — two exactly — but produced runs of 36 and 50 yards.

The day belonged to Barksdale, once he got the butterflies out of his stomach, of course. He was an accurate 9-of-11 passing and did not panic or get too excited when a play broke down or a blocking assignment was missed.

After winning the job following a scrimmage with defending North Carolina 2-AA state champ Reidsville, Barksdale showed why Thurman made the right choice.
“Jayme’s got put in a bad situation (after Miller’s injury),” Thurman said. “He’s had two weeks of practice now, but he came in and did what he had to do and I’m proud of the way he executed.”