Published: October 04, 2008 09:01 pm            

Injured Warriors fall to Dunbar 29-27

Bulldogs score 17 unanswered points in third quarter to pick up first win

Lexington — Injuries to many of their skilled position players played big in the Southwestern Warriors’ 29-27 loss at Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School on Friday night. With senior quarterback T.T. Wooldridge out of the line-up, tailback Adam White was moved to quarterback. Then with Warrior tailback Jake King leaving the game with a shoulder injury in the first quarter, the Warriors had to line up against a 6A powerhouse opponent with a whole new, and inexperienced, offensive backfield.

Leading 21-10 at halftime, the Warriors fumbled the ball twice and turned the ball over on a loss of downs leading to a 17-0 run by Dunbar in the third quarter that turned the game around.

After Southwestern fumbled the ball away on their first possession of the third quarter, Dunbar capitalized with a Jamal Wagner 1-yard touchdown run at the 8:26 mark.

Southwestern gave the ball back on their next series on a loss of downs, thus giving the Bulldogs excellent field position. And once again, Dunbar capitalized when Steven Willis scored on a 10-yard run to give Dunbar a 24-21 lead.

The Warriors’ second fumble of the third quarter led to a 23-yard field goal by Dunbar’s Matt Puracchio to up the Bulldog lead to 27-21.

“A lot of what happened in the third quarter was injury-related more than anything,” Southwestern coach Dale Anderson said. “We had a fourth down and inches and we went for it. We had a new left guard in there who didn’t get his blocks and we had a new fullback. Then we had another fourth down and inches and we fumbled the ball.”

“Both those turnovers gave Dunbar good field position,” Anderson added. “Then we snapped over the punter’s head after not having a bad snap all year and gave (Dunbar) great field position. All that amounted to being the tale of the third quarter and you can’t do that against good teams.”

After Southwestern got pinned in their own end zone for a safety in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter, Dunbar expanded their lead to 29-21 after a 19-point second half turn-around run.

Dunbar ate up a good part of the final quarter until a Cody Epperson fumble recovery at the 27-yard line at the 5:34 mark gave the Warriors some hope of a possible comeback.

With their backs against the wall, Southwestern turned to their injured starting quarterback Wooldridge to lead them on their comeback bid.

Wooldridge delivered when he found Alex Jones for a 20-yard touchdown pass to pull the Warriors within two points.

“We weren’t planning on playing T.T. (Wooldridge) and we put him in the game late in the fourth quarter and he took us down the field for a score,” Anderson said.

But another Warrior bad break put Southwestern back to the 8-yard line on their two-point conversion attempt after a motion penalty. Southwestern could not convert the 2-point conversion after an incomplete pass play.

“The penalty hurt us,” Anderson admitted. “I thought we still had a good shot at the the 2-point conversion. T.T. put the ball right on the money, Adam (White) went up for the catch and the Dunbar defender just made a great play.”

However, the Southwestern defense held Dunbar on their next series on a Bulldog loss-of-downs to give the ball back to the Warriors with almost 2 minutes left in the game.

“Then we got the ball back again with less than two minutes left in the game and we had a chance to go down the field in our two-minute offense,” Anderson explained. “We were going to get down in field goal range and there was no doubt in our mind about that, but we couldn’t complete a pass when we needed to get in field goal range and a lot of that had to do with Dunbar’s athleticism.”

Apart from the Warriors’ injuries, they were still able to play one of their best first halves of the season with three scores and a 21-10 halftime lead.

Dunbar’s Puracchio nailed a 26-yard field goal for the first score of the game.

Southwestern countered with a Jake King 14-yard touchdown run. Then, Dunbar’s’ Marquis Clay scored on a 32-yard pass play from QB Trent Martin.

The Warriors had two big scores in the second quarter to control the early momentum. Adam White scored from 2-yards out to open up the second quarter and new tailback Lucas Shumaker, moved from the left guard position, scored on an 8-yard run to give Southwestern their 21-10 halftime lead.

“We started out strong and the defense played well,” Anderson commented. “Offensively, we were without T.T. (Wooldridge) and we lost Jake (King) early in the first quarter, but we still moved the ball extremely well, and at will.”

“I was really proud of our kids on both sides of the ball, but we couldn’t put two halves together like that,” Anderson added. “We just came out and had a bad third quarter. Some of that was Dunbar, because they put everybody on the line of scrimmage and basically said they were going to stop the run. But we were still able to move the ball against them and our offensive line had a great night, all night long. We had injuries at that one guard position and that hurt us for a couple of series then add in two big plays by Dunbar, and we had to play a third string fullback. At that point, we were really down on the depth chart and those things happen.”

“Dunbar is really a good team that was looking for an identity and you could see they found their identity against Tates Creek (the week before) and they found it against us in the second half.”

With Wooldridge out, Southwestern did not pass the ball until his return late in the fourth quarter. However, Southwestern rushed for 237 yards, but two fumbles, a couple of loss-of-downs and a -5.0 punt average led to the Warriors’ third loss of the season, meanwhile Dunbar picked up their first win of the season.

Southwestern will be back at the Reservation on Friday for a big cross-town district match-up against Pulaski County.



SW 7 14 0 6 — 27

PLD 10 0 17 2 — 29



1st QUARTER

Dunbar (6:34) Puracchio 26 yd Field Goal.

Southwestern (3:38) King 14 yd run. Michael Wright kick.

Dunbar (2:18) Clay 32 yd from Trent Martin. Puracchio kick.

2nd QUARTER

Southwestern (11:54) Adam White 2 yd run. Wright kick.

Southwestern ( 4:32) Lucas Shumaker 8 yd run. Wright kick.

3rd QUARTER

Dunbar (8:26) Jamal Wagner 1 yd run. Puracchio kick.

Dunbar (3:44) Steven Willis 10 yd run. Puracchio kick.

Dunbar (0:03) Puracchio o 23 yd Field Goal.

4th QUARTER

Dunbar (11:50) Safety

Southwestern (3:08) Alex Jones 20 yd from T.T. Wooldridge. Wooldridge pass failed on 2-pt. conversion.



RUSHING — PLD - Willis 27-125, Clay 9-212. SW - White 5-38, Mitchell 15-66, Shumaker 6-30 TD, King 5-98 TD.

PASSING — PLD Martin 14-22-171 TD 2 INT. SW - Wooldridge 3-7-39 TD.

RECEIVING — PLD - Clay 1-33 TD, Mays 7-55, Davis 5-42. SW - Jones 3-39 TD.

        

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