Dunbar defeats Tates Creek 35-26 - Recap Presented by Kroger
Dunbar defeated district rival Tates Creek on their home turf Thursday night after multiple rain delays before a second-half comeback victory.
“I thought it was a good win for our team tonight,” Dunbar head coach Wes Johnson said post-game.
First Quarter: Dunbar 14, Tates Creek 6
Dunbar decided to rush the ball down the Commodores’ throats to begin the game with an 11-play, 75-yard drive. For 10 straight plays, Dunbar pounded it right up the middle. When Creek started getting comfortable defending the rush, quarterback Cole Colony pulled it on an RPO call that saw a Mason Hayslett reception go 31 yards for the score.
Tates Creek answered fast as Mathew Underwood took the first play from scrimmage 75 yards to the house. The ensuing PAT attempt was blocked to keep the Bulldogs ahead 7-6. Johnson said after the fact that a linebacker was out of position, leading to the open lane for Underwood.
After trading turnovers over the next two possessions, a lightning delay brought the game to a halt for half an hour.
“With the lightning delays, there’s really no continuity in the game,” Johnson said. “There’s no flow. It’s hard to get into a rhythm.”
A 28-yard reverse to Erik White set the Bulldogs up with first and 10 from inside their own red zone. Dunbar quarterback Chris Colony called his own number from five yards out for the score three minutes after coming back from delay.
Second Quarter: Tates Creek 20, Dunbar 14
A second lightning strike delayed play once more before the first snap of the second quarter.
Dunbar went three-and-out to start after over an hour of delay. On the ensuing punt, Laquan Newby took a shanked punt 49 yards to the house right after the break. A holding call on the two-point attempt kept Dunbar in the lead.
“We’ve got to get that cleaned up,” Johnson said about Dunbar’s punting woes. “We’ve got to be quicker—we’ve got to get the ball out of there faster.”
Creek rode that wave of momentum on their next drive. After an injury took Hayslett out of the game, the Commodores drove down the field and capped their efforts on a 31-yard rush by Underwood that gave Creek their first lead of the night.
“I felt like that takes the wind out of our sails a little bit,” Johnson said about the injury to Hayslett. The standout linebacker would not return to the game.
Creek once again utilized Underwood’s hot streak, driving down the field on another long rush that set the Commodores up with first and goal from the 10 with three seconds to go. Underwood ultimately finished the night with 18 rushes for 187 yards and two touchdowns.
Dunbar’s John Law tipped the ensuing field goal attempt as time expired and kept the game at one possession heading into the locker room.
Third Quarter: Dunbar 28, Tates Creek 20
Dunbar didn’t know it at the time, but they were about to dominate the scoring column in the second half.
“We just settled them down and told them to play your assignment,” Johnson said. “We had guys that would fill in fine and we did that in the second half.”
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A fourth-down drop by a wide-open Ke’shon Douthitt turned the ball over on downs. Dunbar quickly capitalized with a fast-paced drive that included four-straight rushes capped by a Kamarion Robinson touchdown.
For the second drive in a row, Dunbar rushed the ball every single play. Just like before, Robinson found his way past the pylon for another score, and just like that, the Bulldogs had all the momentum and an eight-point lead.
Robinson finished Thursday with 21 rushes for 126 yards and two scores while averaging 5.5 yards per carry.
Fourth Quarter: Dunbar 35, Tates Creek 26 (FINAL)
After a bad snap on a punt deep in Commodore territory late in the third quarter, Dunbar quickly capitalized on the first play of the fourth as Colony snuck into the end zone for his second score of the night.
Tates Creek wasn’t to be denied another score as quarterback Andrew Witherington’s 60-yard strike to Douthitt connected for a score in the fourth. It was too little too late for the Commodores as Dunbar beat down their district rivals to improve to 1-0 in district play.
“1-0 is 1-0. It doesn’t really matter after that,” Johnson said. “It feels great, but Henry Clay is coming down the road.”
Dunbar will travel across town for the matchup against the Blue Devils next Friday at 6:30 p.m. as they hunt for a second-straight district title.
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