Maroons fall to Spartans

Maroons fall to Spartans
Wytheville Enterprise Staff
Wytheville Enterprise: Sports >
01:51 PM

By JIM CUNNINGHAM/Staff

The Giles Spartans left little doubt Friday night that they will have something to say about what team wins the Division 2 region championship.

The Spartans controlled the ball and the game to whip the George Wythe Maroons 28-7 in a non-district football game played at Pendleton Field.

Giles improved its record to 3-1 while giving George Wythe (3-1) its first loss of the season.
Although there wasn’t a significant difference in the statistics (Giles had 289 total yards to 266 for GW and had 15 first downs to GW’s 12), the Spartans were able to pick up yardage when they needed it the most and kept the Maroons from making serious scoring threats for most of the game.

Two Maroons had good games on the ground. Seth White picked up 100 yards on nine carries. Larry McCoy had 92 yards on 12 carries. McCoy put the Maroons on the board late in the game on a 41-yard run.

GW quarterback Jacob Sharitz completed four passes to four different receivers. Brandon Atwell caught a 12-yard pass; Seth White caught a 31-yard pass; Brandon Davis caught a 19-yard pass; and Devin Smith caught a 22-yard pass.

It was Smith who appeared to have tied the game up on GW’s second possession in the first quarter when he took a handoff and ran over and through several Giles defenders for a 40-yard plus run to the end zone. However, a holding penalty against GW brought the play back. After a quarterback sack, the Maroons had to punt on fourth and long.

The Spartans defense put pressure on GW quarterback Sharitz for most of the game. Sharitz had eight carries in the game for a total of minus 12 yards.

The single wing of Giles gave the Maroons defense fits right from the start. The Spartans took the game’s opening kickoff from their own 32-yard line and methodically moved the ball downfield. Hunter Williams had two long runs on the drive and also took the ball over for the first TD of the game on a one-yard run. Williams scored two touchdowns for Giles and was the leading rusher with 116 yards on 12 carries.

After the touchdown with 9:26 left in the first quarter, GW was called for an offsides on the PAT kick attempt. Giles then attempted a run for the two-point conversion, but GW stopped it as the Spartans settled for a 6-0 lead.

George Wythe’s first possession ended when it turned the ball over on downs and its second ended on a punt late in the first quarter.
After the Maroons forced GHS to punt on its second series, the Spartans went back to its torrid ground game early in the second quarter. Williams capped off the drive again, this time on a six-yard run. The two-point conversion extended the Giles lead to 14-0 with 10:19 left in the first half.

GW was forced to punt again on its next possession, and Giles went on another scoring drive. The points this time came on a 24-yard field goal by Cody Journell to make it 17-0 with 4:20 remaining in the first half.

The Maroons then proceeded to put together a long, sustained drive that began from their own 20 and moved down inside the Giles 20.
But a second and six pass was intercepted by Journell to end the threat with about a minute left in the half.

Both teams punted on their first possessions of the second half. The Maroons, however, fumbled the Giles punt to give the Spartans possessions at the GW 16.

The Spartans quickly took advantage by scoring a TD on a two-yard run by Douthat with 8:05 left in the third. A two-point pass put Giles up 25-0.

Journell kicked another field goal early in the fourth quarter.
McCoy gave the large home crowd something to cheer about with only 1:27 left on a 41-yard burst down the right sideline for six points.

Giles 6 11 8 3 – 28
George Wythe 0 0 0 7 – 7

Scoring:
GHS --Williams 1 run (run failed)
GHS – Williams 6 run (Douthat run)
GHS – Journell 24 FG
GHS – Douthat 2 run (Garrison pass to Douthat)
GHS – Journell 27 FG
GW – McCoy 41 run (Jones kick)

Stats GHS GW
First downs 15 12
Yards rushing 50-254 30-182
Yards passing 35 84
Comp-Att-Int 3-4-0 4-16-1
Fumbles-lost 4-0 3-1
Penalties-yds 8-70 7-45.5
Punts-avg 4-43.0 5-39.0
(Stats courtesy of Kenny Sayers)
(T – 2:27)