The senior Pirates opened their season with a plan to stop Waldron; keep the ball running on offense and keep the Bulldogs’ offense off the field as much as possible. Unfortunately, Sean Kearney, Waldron’s running back had other plans.
“He had over 200 yards rushing against us,” said Head Coach Marc Tucker. “He’s probably one of the top two backs that we’ll see all year.”
Kearny helped Waldron come back from an early Dover lead to win 38-36. Waldron took a 9-8 lead in the first quarter, after forcing the Pirates into a safety and then scoring two plays after the following kickoff. The game continued to be close, but Waldron held onto at least a two-point lead the rest of the night and stopped a fourth-quarter rally by the Pirates to finish the game.
The Pirates did everything they had intended to on offense; ran the ball hard and scored often. Three of Dover’s rushers combined for all but 12 of their 378 yards rushing; T. J. Sizemore carried 17 times for 106 yards and three touchdowns, Connor Freeman also had 17 carries for 170 yards and one touchdown and Willis Morris had ten rushes for 91 yards and a two-point conversion.
The only offensive area that didn’t click was the passing game. Dover went two for ten passing, a total of only 26 yards, when they should have been throwing almost one hundred, according to Tucker. Both completions came from Brent Race and resulted in one touchdown and one first down.
Another thing that held the offense back were twelve penalties against the Pirates, which accounted for the 146 yards lost by Dover. The offense was responsible for nine calls, due to illegal blocks and lining up offsides.
“I know they were anxious to make big plays,” said Tucker. “We’ve just got to work harder on being more disciplined.”
Tucker feels that they will be able to fix those mistakes before the Pirates face Paris this Friday.
“Rushing offensively we’re fine,” he said. “We need to play better defense, though. We need to cover better; we’re playing a passing team this week that’ll throw it 20-25 times, so we need to get ready for that. But if our kids work hard in practice and step it up a notch, we’ll be all right.”
The Pirates take on Paris at home this week, the first of only four home games this season. Kickoff is at 7:30 in the evening, Friday, at Jack Berry Field.
