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Bland County Bears blank Twin Valley 33-0

BLAND COUNTY DEFIES ‘THE EXPERTS’, DOWNS TWIN VALLEY 33-0
By JERRY SCOTT/Correspondent

Picked by many so-called football prognosticating media and internet experts to be run off the field by Twin Valley, the Bears County Bears defied the odds by winning their fourth consecutive opener in Harris Hart’s four years, shutting out the Panthers for the second straight season by a 33-0 score on Aug. 22 in Bastian.
Officially inaugurating the new stadium scoreboard with their first win, the Bears used sterling efforts from many, including Kyle Kennedy, Josh Shrader, Nick Leighton and Dylan Kidd to record the ninth shutout in the program’s history.
The Bears amassed 277 yards of total offense in the rout, 241 coming via its ground game. Many of those yards were a compliment to the play of the offensive line, which after the 2008 graduation, had been a question mark entering the season. The defensive line also had some unanswered questions but its play was equally impressive as evidenced the zero on the Panthers’ side of the scoreboard.
“The offensive and defensive lines have come a long way since we got started,” Bland County’s Harris Hart said. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do but for the first game, I thought they played well, were well prepared. As a whole, I thought we played better overall defense in the second half. We were more aggressive, tackled a lot better than in the first half.”
Kennedy churned out 107 yards on nine carries for the Bears, including a 51-yard scoring burst on the third play of the fourth quarter. He scored three times, one of 13 different players to accomplish that feat over the years.
“Kyle Kennedy had some very good runs for us out there,” Hart said. “And Josh Shrader, as he always seems to do, engineered another fine game. Those two had great efforts for us.”
Shrader completed three of eight passes for 36 yards but teamed with Kidd and Leighton to provide defensive sparks that helped propel the Bears to the win. Shrader was one defensive leader as he recorded four solo tackles and seven assists to go along with an interception. Kidd amassed 11 assists and had a fumble recovery and Leighton boomed four punts for an average of 45.3 yards per kick.
The first score came on Bland County’s second possession of the game and came as a result of a botched punt attempt by the Panthers. A bad snap had the Bears looking at a short field from the Twin Valley 27 and three plays into the mini-drive, at the 3:04 mark of the first period, Kennedy sprinted in from 20 yards out for his first touchdown. Leighton’s PAT kick was wide right as the Bears led 6-0.
A Leighton punt of 46 yards early in the second quarter had the Panthers deep in their own territory and the end result led to Bland County’s second score. From his own 12, Twin Valley’s Jon Meadows sliced a punt out of bounds, again giving the Bears excellent field position at the TV 26. On second down, Shrader juked the defense for a 24-yard run and with his conversion pass to Kennedy, Bland County led 14-0 at the 9:33 mark of the opening half.
Twin Valley turned its next possession over on downs at the Bland County 27 but the Bears were unable to move the ball. A 55-yard Leighton kick pushed Twin Valley back to its own 10 where again a stalled drive and misplayed punt attempt aided a Bland County score.
From the TV 15, Meadows again had to run down an air-balled snap and after a 15-yard flag against the Bears on the tackle, Bland County was facing first-and-10 from the Panthers’ 24. Moments later, Shrader ran it in from 16 yards and Leighton added the PAT as the Bears carried a 21-0 margin into halftime after Jacob Lambert’s forced fumble and Jakob Haun’s recovery on the ensuing kickoff.
Bland County scored once in the third stanza on a 10-yard run from Kennedy to cap a drive of 48 yards in five plays. His 10-yard run ignited the drive and a Shrader-to Caleb Dalton aerial set up Kennedy’s scoring dash at the 6:01 mark of the period. Dalton caught two passes for 30 yards for the Bears.
Twin Valley punted away its next possession and the Bears fumbled away theirs before Shrader squelched a Twin Valley drive near midfield. Back-to-back passes of eight yards from Twin Valley’s Brandon Viers to Tyler Adams had the Panthers in Bland County territory for only the third time but Shrader picked off a Viers attempt at the BC 35 and his 15-yard return set up Kennedy’s 51-yard jaunt on first down that provided the final 33-0 tally with 10:43 remaining.
Twice thereafter the Panthers staged a mini-threat only to see their efforts stalled. Kidd recovered a Garrett Horne fumble at the Bears’ 15 and time expired on the game’s final drive for the Panthers at the BC 6.
Shrader added 43 yards rushing for Bland County on 11 carries and Lambert added 32 yards on six carries. As a team the Bears collected 56 return yards for 333 all-purpose yards.
“That #2 [Shrader] deserves a lot of credit for them,” Twin Valley’s Tommy Crigger said following the game. “He played like a 4-year starter. He made plays all night; he hurt us big time.”
Statistically, the game was somewhat closer than the final score indicated. Costly mistakes at inopportune times for the Panthers dealt damaging results.
“We gave them two snaps over the punter’s head and then another for just 20 [actually 14] yards,” Crigger lamented. “That left Bland County inside the 30 like three times, all of which led to scores.”
Hart agreed with Crigger’s synopsis that those three plays were critical to the game’s final outcome. Special team play has always been a vital part of Bland County success during the Hart regime.
“Special teams, all season but especially in early games, lots of times decides games,” he noted. “Our punt block team and punt return team were well prepared too and I was very pleased with our punt team. Nick Leighton did a great job, had very solid punts.”
Horne led the Panthers with 138 yards on 21 carries. However, 110 of those yards came in the fourth quarter after the final outcome was sealed. Adams added 64 yards on 17 carries and lost yardage of –12 by Viers and –29 from Meadows left Twin Valley with 178 net yards of rushing.
Viers completed four of 13 passes for 43 yards with Adams catching three balls for 34 yards. Twin Valley led in first downs 13-11 but had three turnovers to the Bears’ one.
“The key to this game was Bland County’s speed,” first-year coach Crigger stated. “They are fast. Coach Hart had his guys in the right places, they blitzed at the right times. We have a big team but we’re not experienced enough to take on the speed that he had. They were just too fast for us. They swarmed all over us and the ball.”
The Bears are idle this week but return to action on the 5th of September with a road game at Auburn. The game will be the Eagles’ 2008 opener.

TWIN VALLEY 0 0 0 0—0
BLAND COUNTY 6 15 6 6—33

SCORING—
First quarter:
BC—Ky. Kennedy 20 run (kick failed) 3:04
Second quarter:
BC—Shrader 24 run (Shrader pass to Ky. Kennedy) 9:33
BC—Shrader 16 run (Leighton kick) :45
Third quarter:
BC—Ky. Kennedy 10 run (kick failed) 6:01
Fourth quarter:
BC—Ky. Kennedy 51 run (kick failed) 10:43

TEAM STATISTICS—
TV BC
First downs 13 11
Rushes/yds 47/178 38/241
Comp/Att/Int 4/13/1 3/8/0
Passing yds 43 36
Returns/yds 5/55 4/56
Penalties/yds 4/20 7/70
Fumbles/lost 4/2 1/1
Punts/avg yds 5/24.2 4/45.3

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS—
Rushing:
Twin Valley—Horne 21/138, Adams 17/64, Hartman 2/17, Viers 5/-12, Meadows 2/-29. Bland County—Ky. Kennedy 9/107, Shrader 11/43, Lambert 6/32, Kidd 4/25, Kr. Kennedy 4/21, Haun 1/13, Parker 3/0.
Passing:
Twin Valley—Viers 4/13/1, 43 yds. Bland County—Shrader 3/8/0, 36 yds., Kidd 0/0/0, 0 yds.
Receiving:
Twin Valley—Adams 3/34, Hughes 1/9. Bland County—Dalton 2/30, Ky. Kennedy 1/6.
Returns:
Twin Valley—Hughes 3/33, Adams 1/12, Horne 1/10. Bland County—Kidd 2/23, Lambert 1/19, Shrader 1/14.