I’m one of the few that picked Phoebus!! Looks like they are playing well

On the first play, it's Au'Tori Newkirk held to a gain of 1 on a run. They then go to the air, where Elijah Moss-Williams gets 6 yards, nearly fumbling it away. On 3rd & 5, the Commodores bring Cam Simmons back into the equation and he powers forward for a gain of 7 to the 38.

The big moment for the defense comes when Newkirk is sacked, and I mean drilled, by Oklahoma commit and 4-Star Trent Wilson for a loss of 7. That brings up 3rd & 14, where Newkirk nearly finds Jaiden Avery for a completion into Wise territory. However, the officials rule incomplete.

Maury punts it away on 4th & 14 from their own 24 with 1:20 till intermission. Wise will burn their first time-out before the punt.

A backwards pass to DeCarlos Young ends up resulting in a loss of 8 yards as it's Maryland Terps commit Carlton 'C.J.' Smith at linebacker getting to him. The Pumas get a nice 9-yard catch by Dien Jones to make it 3rd & 9. They then get just enough to move the sticks with QB Eric Wedge running for that exact amount.

Sergio Terrico makes a splendid catch worth 27 yards on 2nd & 10 down to the Maury 31 with 11 seconds to go in the half. Wedge has miscommunication with his receiver on the next pass, but they still have time for one more shot in the end zone with 6 seconds remaining.

Young makes the catch from Wedge, but Smith strings him out of bounds as time expires to reach half-time.

North Stafford on the board before the half on a 35 yard catch and run touchdown. 14-7 Dinwiddie.

General172011 said:

On the other hand highland springs look shell shocked right now

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Phoebus set the tone opening kickoff…0 first downs for Highland Springs first half.

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That kickoff return breathed life into Wise, big-time.

Now we have ourselves a tight ballgame.

Maury has it at their own 24 with 3:50 to go and they are looking to go with rapid speed here before the break to try to re-extend their lead to a pair of scores.

BC scored after a long run but missed the 2pt try. MC 15-14 with 2 minutes in half.

Both teams had uneventful possessions in the final 2 minutes. MC will receive the 2nd half kickoff leading 15-14.

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Tell you what, the Wise defense made it difficult with Tyvon Callaway, Taylor Brown (who had a tackle for loss) and company not budging one bit against the run. So what does Maury do?

They go to the sprint out on 4th & Goal from the 2, giving QB Au'Tori Newkirk more room to operate out of the gun and hit the talented speedster LeBron Bond on the near side for a TD. Flawless execution.

On the other hand highland springs look shell shocked right now

MC stops BC on fourth down. Then Fincham hits Tompkins on 4th down for a 35 yard TD. MC 15 BC 8 with 5 minutes left in the half.

Int return TD for Western

The Dinwiddie defense has forced five punts while the offense has struggles with drop passes and penalties. Forty five yard touchdown pass Dalton to Adams. 14-0 Dinwiddie.

The tempo is picking up for Maury as it's Au'Tori Newkirk finding Damon McDaniel Jr. on a solid 8-yard completion. On 2nd & 2, Newkirk does a splendid job of keeping it on the option read, where the defense bits down on the back - Leon 'Fatman' Clark. As a result, Newkirk gains 11 to move the chains.

Tyvon Callaway - who has 6 total tackles by my count so far (5 solo) - and DeCarlos Young do a nice job of keeping Newkirk short of the first down on 3rd & 5. On 4th & 1 from the Wise 20, Maury leaves the offense on the field, but makes a QB switch with Kendall Daniels in there instead of Newkirk, presumably for more wiggle / size to try to plow forward. But before it can happen, Wise gets called for encroachment.

Oh my!

Eric Wedge, the junior QB for Wise, scrambles for just enough yards on 2nd & 8 to move the sticks. However, the Wise offense has been very basic / vanilla from my perspective. They could be a bit more aggressive and try to attack these corners down the field, especially considering they've drawn a couple of pass interference penalties. Of course, the blocking up front has to be there and right now it has been just so-so for the visitors from Maryland.

Furthermore, the body language is not that great looking for Wise as things have changed dramatically for them since that pitch out that was fumbled by Kamron Parker.

The Maury defense forces a punt on 4th & 4 from the 26 with 10:10 to go in the half. It goes out of bounds and the Commodores have it at the Wise 48 with 10:00 exactly on the clock.

Is this where Dyrri McCain takes a big shot down the field?

Dinwiddie finally gets on the board. Dalton from 1 yard out. 7-0 Dinwiddie.

GW-0 Altavista-18 end of the first. What we've learned is #2 = damn good lol. GW needs to fix allot of stuff and we desperately need to stop trying to 1 arm tackle this kid and 2 quit running up the guy they are 8 in the box and we're running right at them.

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Beautiful job by the Maury offense, designed by Coach Dyrri McCain, to get Au'Tori Newkirk on a rollout and finding their most explosive weapon, LeBron Bond, in space where even this alert Wise defense couldn't keep pace with him.

The PAT is no good / blocked.

A holding penalty on the return by Wise backs them up to their own 10 with 11:40 to go in the half. Before that, though, it was junior LB Isaiah 'Ike' Simmons absolutely laying out the return man with a vicious hit.

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Those receptions by both Kendall Daniels and Damon McDaniel Jr. were much-needed. Right before the end of the first quarter, Daniels nearly caught a TD in the back of the end zone from QB Au'Tori Newkirk as he laid out and just couldn't grab on the diving attempt.

Nice opening period for Newkirk to go 9 of 11 for 66 yards without any turnovers while he saw some pressure in his face.

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Big-time takeaway for the Maury defense, headed up by their Rivals150 talent Ari Watford, who will be in the conversation for Class 5 State Defensive Player of the Year we believe.

Now Maury will look to get its mojo back offensively before the end of the opening period.