Gate City stops George Wythe’s post-season run

By DONNY JENKINS/Correspondent

There was a no parking law at Legion Field in Gate City on Saturday and Tyler Parks made sure that there were no violations.
Parks ran for 212 yards on 44 carries and two scores to lead the Blue Devils to a 21-14 win over the George Wythe Maroons in a Group A, Division 2 state semifinal football game.
George Wythe became a one-dimensional team as the Blue Devil defense took away the vaunted running game that had been spearheaded by Seth White and Larry McCoy all season.
George Wythe, on its opening possession, earned two first downs before they were forced to punt.  Gate City then proceeded to march 52 yards in 10 plays with the major damage coming from runs by Parks. The concluding run was a five yard scamper to give Gate City a 7-0 lead.
The Maroons returned the kickoff to their own 29-yard line and could not maintain the drive and was forced to punt.
The Blue Devils started from their own 38-yard line with 3:01 left in the first quarter.  Gate City then moved to the Maroon 40-yard line before the drive fizzled out and George Wythe took over on downs.  The first period ended with the score Gate City 7, George Wythe 0.
Things went from bad to worse early in the second quarter for George Wythe with the Maroons failing time after time to sustain any offensive momentum.
Gate City scored after a sustained drive with Parks scoring from three yards out to increase the lead to 14-0.
George Wythe finally showed a glimmer of offense when Devin Smith took a screen pass from Jacob Sharitz 44 yards to pay dirt to close the gap to 14-7.  On the ensuing kickoff Gate City fumbled the ball away to George Wythe on the Gate City 26 yard line.  The Gate City defense rose to the occasion and did not allow George Wythe to move the ball any closer and held on downs.
George Wythe was lucky to be within one touchdown as the Gate City defense held them to minus 33 yards rushing and only 69 yards in total offense while the Blue Devil offense amassed 150 yards on the ground and had a total offense of 170 yards, and the score was only Gate City 14 George Wythe 7 at the half.
Gate City took the second half kick off to its own 29-yard line and behind the running of Parks marched 71 yards in 10 plays and ran 6:30 minutes off the clock with quarterback Tihlee Anderson scoring from three yards out to make the score 21-7.
The rest of the third quarter was played with each team just trading possession of the ball.
Jacob Sharitz came out throwing in the fourth period and the Maroons marched down the field and finally got enough of a running game with McCoy scoring from 9 yards out to close the gap to 21-14.
George Wythe had one more chance, but it came to an end with Tyler Parks intercepting the bomb from Sharitz to secure the win for the Blue Devils.
With the loss George Wythe finished the year with a record of 11-2 a successful comeback from their disappointing 6-4 record from the 2006 season.
Next up for the Blue Devils (10-3) will be the Gretna Hawks (13-0) for the VHSL Group A Division 2 title.  The game will be played at Salem with the game scheduled to start at 4:30 on Saturday.

George Wythe 0 7 0 7—14
Gate City 7 7 7 0—21

GC GW
First Downs 15 9
Yards Rushing 230 -29
Yards Passing 46 183
Total Offense 276 154
Passing 2-3-0 15-30-1
Fumbles lost 1 0
Penalties/yards 3-25 3-27

Scoring:
Gate City—Parks 5 run (kick good)
Gate City—Parks 3 run (kick good)
George Wythe—Smith 44 pass from Sharitz (kick good)
Gate City—Anderson 1 run (kick good)
George Wythe—McCoy 9 run (kick good)