1 week Ago
BARNWELL 42, ACADEMIC MAGNET 0 BARNWELL -- Barnwell's football team was one of very few in this part of the state that didn't have its schedule flipped upside-down by Hurricane Helene, meaning last week's make-up week for just about everybody else was a bye week for the Warhorses. That gave them two full weeks to prepare for Academic Magnet ahead of Friday night's Class AA playoff opener, and with state championship aspirations they used that extra prep time to work on every scenario that can happen in a football game in order to be ready for anything that might come their way. One drill they didn't get to work on was the one where there's only six-minute quarters with a running clock, which is where they found themselves in the second half after roaring out to a 42-0 lead in about 19 minutes of game time.
Still, with the starters urging on the reserves from the sidelines in the closing moments, the Warhorses preserved the shutout - by a yard. That was really the only drama of the night against a just-happy-to-be-here Raptors team for the top-seeded Warhorses, who rolled into a second-round home game against Timberland next Friday. "Being up 42-0 at the half and healthy is what we wanted," said Barnwell head coach Brian Smith.
"Our kids came out and played really well early. We kind of thought we were going to spin it around a little bit, and (quarterback Cameron Austin) did a great job distributing it. I think we had four or five touchdowns called back in the first half.
It was just crazy on our part what was going on with that. But we'll do better with that. We still scored every drive, so that's a great night for us.
Came out healthy, and that was our goal." Those penalties in the first half were about all that was going to prolong a game that was over an hour and 45 minutes after it kicked off. The Warhorses (10-1) still cashed in on all six drives in the first half, out-gaining the Raptors 295-1 and severely shortening the second half.
Austin completed 13 of 15 passes for 217 yards and five touchdowns to four different receivers, all in the first half - the Warhorses didn't get the ball in the second, as the Raptors' lone drive ate up both six-minute quarters. Academic Magnet picked up the bulk of its 83 total yards on that possession, with Barnwell's starters long gone from the game. The plan was for everybody on the roster to get in at some point, both to pick up postseason experience for back-ups and to give some nicked-up starters a little more time to heal.
Austin and Logan Sturkie connected for a pair of touchdowns, the first from 8 yards out barely more than a minute into the game and the second a 20-yarder on a shovel pass, to make it 14-0 at the 5:09 mark of the first quarter. Austin then hit Jaquan Peeples for a 40-yard score a couple minutes later to make it 21-0, then found William Robinson for an 11-yard touchdown and Kahzeer Wesley for a 14-yarder to push the lead to 35-0 with 8:49 still to go in the second quarter. Jayden Rollins capped the scoring with a 1-yard touchdown run 4 minutes later, and soon after came the discussion about how much time to take off the clock in the second half.
"It was kind of crazy what we had early in the first half," Smith said. "..
. We executed well all night long, and that's how we need to play. Our defense played well.
Special teams played well. They did a good job returning punts. As we get going in the playoffs, it's going to get tougher and we know that.
We really needed to come out of this one healthy and with a chance to move on." The defense held Academic Magnet to only three yards rushing on 16 attempts, and a tackle just shy of the goal line on the final play of the night finished off the shutout and sent everyone on the Barnwell sideline home happy. "Our kids have played hard all year on that side of the ball," Smith said of his defense.
"We had a little bit at the end there because the starters didn't want to give up a score, and I'm trying to manage the fact that we can't put them back in because we need to be healthy next week. It would be really silly to get somebody hurt on a play with the game out of reach." Up next for the Warhorses, a top seed as Region 5-AA champions and winners of seven straight, is a visit from Timberland, the Region 6-AA runner-up that beat Lake City 20-15 on Friday.
AM 0 0 0 0 -- 0 B 21 21 0 0 -- 42 SCORING SUMMARY First Quarter B - Cameron Austin 8 pass to Logan Sturkie (Lane Evans kick) 10:52 B - Austin 20 pass to Sturkie (Evans kick) 5:09 B - Austin 40 pass to Jaquan Peeples (Evans kick) 2:38 Second Quarter B - Austin 11 pass to William Robinson (Evans kick) 11:04 B - Austin 14 pass to Kahzeer Wesley (Evans kick) 8:49 B - Jayden Rollins 1 run (Evans kick) 4:52 INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS Rushing AM - Donovan Hamilton 7-15, Keveon Ford 3-8, Samba Diallo 3-(-2), Campbell Stoklosa 3-(-18). Totals 16-3. B - Nehemiah Brown 4-28, Jordan Peeples 1-25, Jayden Rollins 2-13-1, Cameron Austin 2-12.
Totals 9-78-1. Passing AM - Campbell Stoklosa 9-18-80-0-0. B - Cameron Austin 13-15-217-5-0.
Receiving AM - Dean McCullough 4-36, Tyler Perez 3-21, Trenton Pinckney 1-17, Donovan Hamilton 1-6. Totals 9-80. B - Jaquan Peeples 2-83-1, Kahzeer Wesley 5-77-1, Logan Sturkie 3-36-2, William Robinson 2-20-1, Jayden Peeples 1-1.
Totals 13-217-5..
