Trending
By Neil Rudel
nrudel@altoonamirror.com
WILLIAMSBURG - At 0-8, the Blue Pirates are looking for small victories to grow from this season, and they found a few Friday night.
Visiting West Branch scored the game's first four touchdowns and the last three en route to a 49-16 victory, but in between, Williamsburg put together its best quarter of the season.
The Pirates punched in a pair of third-quarter touchdowns and, with successful 2-point conversions each time, cut the Warriors' lead to 28-16 to energize the homecoming crowd and inject some belief into the rebuilding process.
"The score didn't really indicate it, but we were able to do some good things tonight," Williamsburg coach Bob Hearn said. "We moved the ball. Defensively, we had a few breakdowns, but I thought our kids played better and played hard, and I was really proud of them for that."
Quarterback Tyler Clark threw a pair of touchdown passes - a 7-yarder to Wes McCall and a 65-yarder to Shane Brantner. All three are sophomores, and the play to Brantner was Williamsburg's longest this season.
"Ty Clark never played quarterback before this year," Hearn said. "He's improving each week, and the receivers are getting better. McCall is starting to come along, and the Brantner boy made a nice catch and run. We just have to have time and tonight we did."
West Branch, though, quickly regrouped, and Aiden Kephart's 35-yard touchdown run gave the Warriors breathing room.
"It's great to see Keppy get on the scoreboard," West Branch coach Kevin Hubler said. "Our fullbacks are traditional fullbacks. They do a lot of the blocking so it was nice to see him pop that."
Senior Derek Yingling led the Warriors by pounding out 173 yards on 31 carries, including a pair of 27-yarders.
"Yingling is a special back," Hearn said. "He runs hard."
For the game, West Branch, now 5-3 overall and 4-3 in the Inter-County Conference, rushed for 299 yards.
"Our run game has been there all year, but it all starts up front," Hubler said.
Warriors junior quarterback Ayden Gutierrez completed 8-of-13 for 150 yards and surpassed the 1,000-yard mark for the season. His 52-yard TD to Josh Cantolina opened the scoring.
Cantolina caught four passes for 108 yards, and senior tight end Gage Thompson made a nice grab of a 16-yard TD in the fourth quarter.
"Josh has been doing that for us all year," Hubler said. "It was a good ball from Ayden, and Josh went up and got it."
Following losses to Everett and Bellwood-Antis, West Branch was eager to right the ship.
"The kids played great," Hubler said. "The kids were looking to rebound, and I think they did just that. We came out of the gate hot and had a lull in the middle but finished strong. I preached to the kids that we can't play on a roller coaster and expect to be a good football team. We relaxed a little bit when we were up 28-0, and Williamsburg kept playing and got right back in it."
Of the Pirates' 242 yards, 188 came in the second half, including 40 on the ground by Dallas Price.
"West Branch is a good team," Hearn said. "We can take some positive things and move forward from this."
Game notes: Paige Gunnett and Chandler Edwards were crowned Williamsburg's homecoming queen and king, respectively ... Will Herring and Noah Hoffner, both sophomores, intercepted passes ... Williamsburg's Jared Webb alertly recovered an onside kick ... West Branch left-footed kicker Kyle Godin made all seven extra points ... The Blue Pirates are at Everett next week while West Branch hosts Northern Bedford.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
West Branch 7 14 14 14 -- 49
Williamsburg 0 0 16 0 -- 16
First quarter
WB - Cantolina 52 pass from Gutierrez (Godin kick), 10:47
Second quarter
WB - Herring 8 run (Godin kick), 7:42
WB - Yingling 3 run (Godin kick), 2:30
Third quarter
WB - Yingling 6 run (Godin kick), 10:33
W - McCall 7 pass from T. Clark (D. Price run), 6:51
W - Brantner 65 pass from T. Clark (McCall pass from T. Clark), 6:51
WB - A. Kephart 35 run (Godin kick), 2:39
Fourth quarter
WB - G. Thompson 16 pass from Gutierrez (Godin kick), 8:19
WB - Pase 6 run (Godin kick), 2:16
TEAM STATISTICS WB W
First downs 22 11
Total yards 449 242
Rushes-yards 45-299 33-137
Yards passing 150 115
Pass (comp.-att.-int.) 8-14-0 5-13-2
Punts-avg. 0-0 3-28.0
Fumbles-lost 1-0 5-1
Penalties-yards 4-30 6-38
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING-West Branch: Yingling 31-173, A. Kephart 2-47, Herring 5-45, Gutierrez 2-21, Pase 2-9, Dawes 2-6, Browne 1-(-2). Williamsburg: McCall 1-41, D. Price 12-36, J. Clark 6-23, Detwiler 3-22, T. Clark 11-5.
PASSING - West Branch: Gutierrez 8-13-0-150, Cantolina 0-1-0. Williamsburg: T. Clark 5-13-2-115.
RECEIVING- West Branch: Cantolina 4-108, Hoffner 2-14, G. Thompson 1-16, Dale 1-12. Williamsburg: McCall 4-50, Brantner 1-65