Dragons Win Defensive Battle Over White County In Home Opener

Sports, Team FYN Sports

Last night, the Dragons varsity football team opened up the 2015 regular season in the friendly confines of Dragons Stadium against the White County Warriors. Coming off of a win in their scrimmage game against River Ridge two weeks ago, Pickens looked to open up the season with a big win. Last year in Cleveland, Ga, the Dragons beat the Warriors in a shoot out to open 2014.

 

White County won the toss but elected to defer to the 2nd half meaning the Dragons would get the first chance to put points on the board. After a good kickoff return, the Dragons were unable to find the endzone. The Warriors used the Wing-T/Triple Option offense to slow down the pace of play but as the 1st quarter ended, there would be no score from either team.

 

As the 2nd quarter of play moved along, White County believed they had the first score of the ball game. A penalty negated that score, and we remained deadlocked at 0. The first score of the game came at the 4:14 mark of the 2nd quarter as Ty Chastain booted a 40-yd field goal through the uprights to give his team a 3-0 lead. Pickens took that 3-0 lead into halftime over the Warriors.

 

Penalties and stalled drives hindered both teams in the 3rd quarter until the Warriors’ Caleb Crane was able to hit pay dirt from 7-yds out. A missed PAT gave White County a 6-3 lead with 2:51 left in the 3rd. Pickens found it’s most sustained drive as they headed to the 4th, looking to reclaim the lead.

 

Just 35 seconds into the 4th and final quarter of play, quarterback Marcus Byrd hit the open hole on the left side and found the endzone to give the Dragons a 10-6 lead with 11:25 left in this one. Chastain added his 2nd field goal of the night with 1:35 to go to make it a 13-6 game. The Warriors had one final drive to try and tie things up, but the Pickens defense came up big and forced a turnover on downs allowing the offense to run out the clock giving the Dragons a 13-6 victory.

 

STATS

First Downs: Pickens 11 White County 7

3rd Downs: Pickens 6/14 White County 3/12

4th Downs: Pickens 1/2 White County 0/2

Total Yards: Pickens 244 White County 149

Total Plays: Pickens 54 White County 47

Rush Yards: Pickens 244 White County 23

Pass Yards: White County 126

Total Takeaways: Pickens 2 White County 0

Offensive leaders for Pickens: Byrd 60 yds rushing on 10 attempts and 1 touchdown, Chris Pittman 157 yds rushing on 31 attempts

Deffensive leaders for Pickens: Dillon Eilers 10 tackles, 1 sack, Kyle West 8 tackles, 1 TFL, Nick Southern & Andrew Ortiz 7 tackles each

Special Teams: Byrd 5 punts for 191 yards and 2 inside the 20, Caleb Brooks 3 punt returns for 42 yards and a kick return for 21 yards, Dillon Gasaway 1 kick return for 55 yards

Ty Chastian: 1-1 on PAT’s 2-3 on field goals with a long of 40 yards

 

Pickens will look to build off this hard nosed win and prepare for the first road test of the season, a match up with the Vikings of East Hall next Friday while White County will get ready for their home opener against Jackson County.

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