Star City enjoyed many happy returns in Friday's 56-25 road victory over the Mills Comets.
Junior Eric Briggs returned a kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown, senior Darien Chaney scored on a 20-yard punt return and junior Blake Wynn returned an interception 53 yards to set up another score as the Bulldogs remained unbeaten.
Star City (3-0) rolled up 507 yards of total offense compared to 233 for Mills (1-2).
"We moved the ball, but we didn't finish a couple of drives," Star City Coach Jett Furneaux said of two Bulldogs' fumbles in Mills' territory. "But to go on the road and play a [Class] 5A school, I thought we handled that as best we could."
The Bulldogs won despite a four-touchdown effort by Calen Peters. The Comets' senior running back finished with 130 yards on 21 carries, scoring on runs of 31, 1 and 20 yards while also returning a kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown.
The night, however, belonged to the Bulldogs, who all but put the game away with a 21-point second quarter.
Mills grabbed a 13-7 lead with 1:18 left in the first quarter when Peters capped an 8-play, 77-yard drive with his 1-yard scoring run. The touchdown was set up by senior Daren Flowers, whose 56-yard burst up the middle set the Comets on the Star City 4.
Briggs responded with his 85-yard kickoff return that started a string of 35 consecutive points for the Bulldogs.
Star City junior quarterback Tye Brown completed 20 of 30 passes for 268 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also broke off an 80-yard touchdown run for the game's final score.
Senior Dajunn Harris led the Bulldogs in rushing, gaining 112 yards on nine carries. Harris scored on a 4-yard run and on a 35-yard screen pass. His five catches accounted for a team-high 79 yards receiving.
Besides scoring on his punt return, Chaney had a 16-yard run for Star City's first touchdown. Wynn, who caught four passes for 69 yards, scored on an 11-yard pass. Junior Erick Estaban was 8 for 8 on extra points.
Star City's performance, however, was far from perfect. The Bulldogs lost three fumbles and were guilty of eight penalties for 65 yards.
"We came out sluggish offensively, but I thought our defense was ready to play," Furneaux said. "We played pretty good up front on defense and our linebackers have started to swarm to the ball a little better. I just hate it when we put our defense in such bad situations. We were fortunate to keep them out of the end zone as much as we did."
NASHVILLE 22, WATSON CHAPEL 13
NASHVILLE — LaMichael Pettway caught two touchdown passes from Leonard Snell to lead Nashville (3-0) over Watson Chapel (0-3).
Pettway scored for the Scrappers from 18 yards out with 2:49 left in the first quarter. Nashville scored two points defensively when a player tackled the Watson Chapel quarterback in the end zone.
At halftime the Scrappers were up 9-0, but Watson Chapel would inch back into the game with a 22-yard run by Roger Totten to cut the lead to 9-7.
Pettway caught a 16-yard pass from Snell with 4:37 left in the third quarter, and Trey Hughes’ 13-yard reception from Snell with 2:30 left gave the Scrappers a 22-7 lead.
NO. 5 PULASKI ROBINSON 40, NORTH PULASKI 0
Pulaski Robinson’s T.J. Hammonds caught a touchdown pass and over 125 yards in the opening two drives to spark the Senators (3-0) in a rout.
Hammonds also threw a 53-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter. Cameron Harris and NyQuan Harris each returned interceptions for touchdowns.
Pulaski Robinson led 33-0 at halftime.
Sports on 09/20/2014