Jacksonville, Fla. – The W.S. Neal football team traveled many miles on the road Friday to take on Bishop Snyder for their 2014 season opener.
On the field, the Eagles of East Brewton ran for many yards as they racked up a 33-14 win over the Cardinals.
W.S. Neal racked up 318 yards rushing to key the win. Overall, the Eagles tallied 313 total yards of offense as they were held to minus-5 passing
“It was the first game and the kids played extremely hard,” W.S. Neal head coach Doug Hoehn said. “It is extremely hot and humid out here tonight and I thought the kids played well. In the first half, we had a couple of broken assignments on defense after they tried to nickel-and-dime us to keep the ball away from us. The coaches did a good job at halftime of making adjustments. I think we controlled the game on offense pretty well from there on out. Their program is nothing but class and their kids played hard. Coach McRae does a fine job with those kids. It was a hard-fought game. Like I said earlier, I thought we would OK in spaces with them, but it would be tough up front. It was just hard to get them off the field because they are just so big up front. The kids handled the trip really well. I am extremely proud of them.”
WSN gave up an early score to Bishop Snyder to trail 7-0 with 2:48 left in first quarter.
From there, WSN scored 33 unanswered points to build a 33-7 lead with 2:48 left in third quarter.
WSN and Snyder were tied 7-7 after one quarter before WSN led 14-7 at the half.
WSN scored 19 points in the third quarter to take a 33-7 lead heading into the fourth.
Bishop Snyder scored the final points of the game with 4:01 left in the fourth.
Quenton Samuels finished with 119 rushing yards on 13 carries and scores one touchdown. Samuels touchdown run was 60 yards.
Malcolm Hawthorne finished with 91 yards on six carries and scored three touchdowns. Hawthorne scored on runs of 2, 14, and 47 yards.
Trey Taylor added a 55-yard score and 74 yards on two carries.
Lane Chavers was 2-for-2 passing for the Eagles of East Brewton.
Jonathan Gantt added 17 yards rushing for W.S. Neal while Peyton Salter had three, Jeremiya Mitchell had 12 and Andrew Langham had two.
“W.S. Neal is a very impressive team,” Bishop Snyder head coach Brian McRae said. “The Eagles came, and I knew they were going to be good.
“I saw them on film and I talked to Coach, and knew how well prepared they were going to be.,” he said. “My team, we are not in shape yet. We had too many practices cancelled. That put us behind the eight ball, but that has nothing to do with the way W.S. Neal played.”
McRae credit Neal with a talented team.
“Their quarterback tandem is good, and their running game is awesome,” he said. “I think they are going to make some noise in Alabama for sure.”
W.S. Neal surrendered 179 rushing yards to Bishop Snyder and 104 passing for a total of 283.
W.S. Neal had 118 total yards of offense at the half with all yards coming on the ground.
Bishop Snyder had 156 total yards of offense at the half with 89 rushing an 87 passing.
“I think we ran well tonight,” Hoehn said. “I think the first half we only broke down once.
“We had three penalties all night long and on the first drive of the night we had two of them,” he said. “I thought we were doing what we wanted to do on offense. We just had a hard time getting them off the field.
“(The coach) picked up on some of the things we were doing, and we had to go in halftime and change a few things,” he said. “I am proud of the kids.”