Sports

STAR CITY TROUNCES FORDYCE IN SWEET VENGEANCE AT HOME

By Sean Saunders/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Saturday, October 31, 2009 1:48 AM CDT

STAR CITY — Last year, Fordyce kept Star City out of the playoffs by beating the Bulldogs on a last-minute touchdown pass. This year, Star City’s defense and ground game made it to where the game wasn’t even close.

Fordyce’s Winston Raney puts a vicious late hit on Star City’s Ty Towers in the second quarter. PINE BLUFF COMMERCIAL/RALPH FITZGERALD.

The Bulldogs rushed for 277 yards and held the Redbugs to only 154 total yards as Star City remained one of the hottest teams in Southeast Arkansas and extracted some revenge with a 28-12 victory Friday night at Bulldog Stadium. The win secured a No. 2 seed in the playoffs out of the 8-4A Conference and put the Bulldogs in position for a share of the conference title after Hamburg upset Warren 7-6.

“I wouldn’t say revenge is the right word because we have a lot of respect for the Fordyce program,” Star City coach Blair Brown said. “But it does feel sweet to get on a run and start playing better offensively and defensively. Defensively, our kids have made great strides. We had nine new starters and we knew there would be a learning curve.”

Junior Demetri Goins held up his end of the bargain on both sides of the ball for Star City (8-1, 5-1). Goins led the Bulldogs’ potent ground game with 116 yards on 12 carries and two second-half touchdowns to salt away the win, and he also paced the Star City defense with 15 total tackles, including 13 solo stops and two for a loss of 6 yards total.

“Demetri Goins is a beast, both offensively and defensively,” Brown said. “He wills us to do well.”

The defense set the tone for Star City early in the first half. The Bulldogs fumbled the ball on their own 23-yard line on their first play from scrimmage, but their defense held Fordyce (3-6, 3-3) to only 3 yards of offense on the ensuing possession.

“We got beat up front, physically on both sides offensively and defensively,” Fordyce coach Clark Watkins said. “They just physically whipped us up front. That was the bottom line to this game.”

Star City held Fordyce to only 64 yards rushing, a season low for conference play. The Redbugs had 11 rush attempts go for negative yards, including nine in the first half.

“That’s just a lot of hard work from our defensive kids and our defensive staff,” Brown said.

Ty Towers gave the Star City offense a shot in the arm on the next possession when he took an end-around and raced it 54 yards for the score. The Bulldogs took a 14-0 lead before Fordyce even knew what hit it when Hosia Rochelle plunged into the end zone from 11 yards out on the first play of the second quarter. Rochelle finished with 98 yards on 14 carries.

But Fordyce was able to take advantage of a second-quarter lull that took over the Bulldogs. The Redbugs cut the deficit to 14-6 heading into halftime with a 1-yard touchdown run by Dexter Walker with 3 minutes, 34 seconds remaining in the first half.

“I thought not scoring after that fumble was the turning point of the game for a while because I thought we were going to lay an egg right there because our offense wasn’t moving the ball and we weren’t stopping them,” Watkins said. “But then our offense came up with that long drive in the second quarter to get us back into the game.”

But Star City would answer coming out of halftime with what Brown called “the signature drive of the game.” The Bulldogs marched 51 yards in nine plays, and Goins punched it in from 7 yards out to make the score 22-8 after Sage Gasaway’s second two-point conversion run.

“It was pretty big,” Goins said. “We needed to put the game away at that point.”

Goins added his second score from 8 yards out with 5:27 remaining in the game. Fordyce added a touchdown during mop-up time when Dean Adams, who was 6-of-10 for 90 yards, hooked up with sophomore Keon Collins on a 34-yard touchdown pass.

Star City is assured of hosting a playoff game after not being in the playoffs for five years. The Bulldogs have also found their offensive stride after going through a slight swoon in the middle of conference play, scoring more than 25 points in their last three victories.

Meanwhile, Fordyce is now starting to feel some pressure from Hamburg, as both teams are now tied at 3-3. Fordyce owns a tiebreaker over Hamburg by way of a 13-7 victory earlier this year, so the Redbugs can clinch with either a win at McGehee on Thursday or a Hamburg loss to Dumas.

“We’re going to go into McGehee next week with the mindset that we have to win,” Watkins said. “That’s all there is to it. We have to win.”

Star City travels to Dollarway on Thursday to try to wrap up its share of the conference title. The Bulldogs could still wrap up the league’s No. 1 seed and an outright title should Warren fall to Lake Village.

STAR CITY 28, FORDYCE 12

Fordyce 0 6 0 6 — 12

Star City 6 8 8 6 — 28

SCORING SUMMARY

FIRST QUARTER

SC — Towers 54 run (run failed), 3:06.

SECOND QUARTER

SC — Rochelle 11 run (Gasaway run), 11:54.

FORD — Walker 1 run (pass failed), 3:34.

THIRD QUARTER

SC — Goins 7 run (Gasaway run), 7:44.

FOURTH QUARTER

SC — Goins 8 run (pass failed), 5:27.

FORD — Collins 34 pass from Adams (run failed), 3:20.

STATISTICAL LEADERS

RUSHING: Fordyce, Walker 20-72, Sparks 2-22, Adams 6-2; Star City, Goins 12-116, Rochelle 14-98, Towers 3-52.

PASSING: Fordyce, Adams 6-10-0-90, Tolbert 0-1-0-0; Star City, Gasaway 2-6-0-8.

RECEIVING: Fordyce, Walker 5-56, Collins 1-34; Star City, Goins 1-7, Towers 1-1.

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