King Snatches Region Crown from RWA

Peyton Gilbert (3) is taken to the ground by the King defense. (Photo/Martha Ladd)

Peyton Gilbert (3) is taken to the ground by the King defense. (Photo/Martha Ladd)

WINNSBORO (Oct. 31, 2016) – After a long regular season the SCISA 8-man Region II crown came down to a single game between the Richard Winn Eagles, who were undefeated in region play coming into the game, and the undefeated W.W. King Knights. Over 400 rushing yards on 57 attempts propelled the King Academy Knights over Richard Winn Friday night by the final of 52-22.

“It’s physically tiring and mentally tiring” Eagles’ head coach Rob O’Connell said on the devastating rushing attack. “We’ve got guys that were out so we were playing shorthanded, and we’re playing a lot of young guys who aren’t used to that speed of the game.”

King wasted no time putting their rushing skills on display. In just under 3 minutes they marched 55 yards down the field and picked up the first score of the game on a 6-yard Lane Bedenbaugh run.

Bedenbaugh had himself a monster of a night. He had a kickoff return go for a score, 172 yards rushing and three more rushing scores.

Noticeably absent for Richard Winn was senior quarterback and receiver Mitchell Gibbons, who had played lights-out all season. Filling in for Gibbons was eighth-grader Zack Taylor, and he struggled with only 61 yards passing for the night, but did account for two of the Eagles’ three scores.

“He broke a bone in his throwing hand last week against Jefferson Davis,” O’Connell said on the Gibbons’ injury, “so he’s going to be out for a couple of weeks with that.”

Later in the first, after both teams traded fumbles, King added another score to their lead. Again, Bedenbaugh found his way into the end zone, this time from 3 yards out, and at the end of the first Richard Winn trailed 14-0.

A Richard Winn turnover on downs left King with good field position on their own 43 early in the second quarter. It would take but one rush, and just like that quarterback Jackson Parrish had taken the ball 57 yards to the house to push the lead to three scores.

The Eagles responded with a huge rushing score of their own on their next drive. One rush was also enough for Peyton Gilbert to run the ball in from 75 yards out, and the score cut the King lead down to 20-8.

King bounced right back and pushed the ball 63 yards down the field before Parrish scored on a 1-yard quarterback sneak. The point trading continued on the next drive when Richard Winn scored on a 4-yard Taylor rushing score, but during the drive the Eagles lost Gilbert for the game after a scary hit.

“He took a pretty hard hit,” O’Connell said, “so we just went ahead and made the decision to not play him in the second half just as a precautionary thing. We knew that we have more games to play in the playoffs so we just went ahead and got him evaluated by a doctor. He should be back next week.”

The score put Richard Winn within 11 points of the lead, but with 3 minutes remaining before half Bedenbaugh took the kickoff back 76 yards to the house, stretching back to three scores.

“It seems like every time that we were about to get back in the game we made a mistake,” O’Connell said. “That’s the thing against good teams, you can’t make mistakes like that, and unfortunately for us we made those mistakes and the times that we made them were bad.”

The Knights came out of the half looking to put the Eagles away quickly, and scored on two of their first three second-half drives. Fullback Chris Fincher picked up a 15-yard score, and Bedenbaugh tallied a 52-yard rushing touchdown to make the King lead 46-15.

That would be the last bit of action the King starters would see, and the bench got into the game. Sophomore Bryan Doolittle came into the game as the new tailback for the Knights, and he scored from 5 yards out to seal the game.

Taylor and John Russell hooked up on a 26-yard touchdown for the Eagles with just 5 seconds to go to make the score look a bit better.

The loss means King wins the region and will have a bye week next week. Richard Winn will host a playoff game Friday against the number three seed Clarendon Hall, a team that Richard Winn defeated 39-6 earlier this year.

“Hopefully after the score on Friday night they come back and they’re excited,” O’Connell said. “What we told them after the game is it’s one and done. If we don’t show up and do what we’re supposed to do we’re done. It’s not a ‘we will do it next time,’ so we just talk about the finality of it.”

 

KA: 14-18-14-6 – 52

RWA: 0-15-0-7 – 22

 

Scoring

First Quarter

KA – Lane Bedenbaugh 6 run (L. Bedenbaugh 3 rush). 9:39

KA – L. Bedenbaugh 3 run (run failed). 1:09.

Second Quarter

KA – Jackson Parrish 57 run (run failed). 10:40.

RWA – Peyton Gilbert 75 run (Chris Christianson 1 pass from Zack Taylor). 10:15.

KA – J. Parrish 1 run (pass failed). 5:33.

RWA – Zack Taylor 4 run (Brandon Miller kick). 3:34.

KA – L. Bedenbaugh 76 kickoff return (run failed) .3:20.

Third Quarter

KA – Chris Fincher 15 run (run failed). 7:18.

KA – L. Bedenbaugh 52 run (C. Fincher 3 run). 4:10

Fourth Quarter

KA – Bryan Doolittle 5 run (run failed). 2:07.

RWA – John Russell 26 pass from Z. Taylor (B. Miller kick). 0:05.

 

KA                                          RWA

First Downs                        18                                           14

Rushes/Yards                    57-402                                   36-204

Passing Yards                     13                                           61

C-A-I-TD                               2-6-0-0                                  5-18-1-1

Fumbles/ Lost                   3/1                                         3/1

Penalties/Yards                8-55                                       5-42

 

Rushing: KA – Chris Fincher 10-61, Lane Bedenbaugh 22-172, Jackson Parrish 11-100, Bryan Doolittle 10-55, Wil Parrish 4-14. RWA – Zack Taylor 20-60, Peyton Gilbert 4-99, Brandon Miller 7-36, M. Gilbert 5-9.

Receiving: KA – Chris Fincher 1-1, Hunter DuBose 1-12. RWA – Peyton Gilbert 1-(-4), Brandon Miller 1-7, Johnny Edenfield 1-15, John Russell 2-43.

Passing: KA – Jackson Parrish 2-5,13 yards. Lane Bedenbaugh 0-1. RWA – Zack Taylor 5-18, 61 yards, TD, INT.

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