Staff Writer Luke Reeder
NASHVILLE – Friday night
the Nashville Scrapper football
team became locked in
an intense battle against the
Fountain Lake Cobras. The
Scrappers were able to prevail,
13-12, after a hard fought
second half of play.
This season Fountain
Lake has not relied heavily
on their passing game, but
early on in the first quarter
the Cobras took to the air
for the opening score. With
7:22 left in the first quarter,
Fountain Lake was able to
beat the Scraper secondary
for a 95 yard touchdown
pass bringing the score to 7-0
early in the game. Nashville
was able to answer with
their own score with four
and a half minutes left in
the quarter as running back
Darius Hopkins was able to
find the endzone after a nine
yard run. Yet after the touchdown
the Scrappers still
remained down by one point
because of a missed point
after attempt. With less than
a minute left in the opening
quarter Fountain had driven
the ball and made it to fourth
and goal. Nashville’s defense
then held strong and
stopped the Cobras from
scoring with seconds left
Scrappers battle it out with Fountain Lake,13-12
on the clock. Then just as
it seemed Nashville would
go into the second quarter
only down by one, they got
the ball after the turnover on
downs but then the Cobras
got ahold of quarter back
Leonard Snell for a safety as
the time in the first quarter
expired. This brought the
score to 9-6 lead for Fountain
Lake going into the second
quarter.
In the second quarter it
took almost seven minutes
for either offense to start
clicking on the same page.
With 5:06 left to play in the
half, running back Trent
Harris broke free for a 23
yard touchdown run for
the Scrappers and after a
made point after attempt,
the Scrappers were able to
secure their first lead of the
game at 13-9. The Nashville
defense was able to stop the
Fountain Lake offense for
the majority of the second
quarter including a drive
as the quarter expired. The
Scrapper defense was able to
stop the Cobras from scoring
a touchdown before the half
and instead held them to a field goal. At the half
Nashville retained a one
point lead that would also
end up being the final score
of the game.
In the second half neither
offense was able to
get on the same page and
this caused frustration for
both sides as each team suffered
an ejection because of
unsportsmanlike conduct.
The Scrapper defense kept
the game alive for Nashville.
With seven tackles and five
assists on tackles plus a recovered
fumble, player Ashton
Nelson led the defense
in tackles. Terrell Grundy
and Billy Stewart also played
pivotal roles as Grundy was
able to also have seven tackles
and two sacks, and Stewart
managed three tackles,
four assists and three sacks.
On the night Snell was
8/17 passing for 57 yards,
Trey Hughes was the only
receiver with positive yards
with seven catches for 63
yards. Hopkins led the team
in rushing with 79 yards on
17 attempts and one touchdown
followed by Snell with
55 rushing yards on 16 attempts
and Harris with 53
yards on four attempts and
a touchdown.
After the game head
coach Mike Volarvich expressed
that he knew this
was not going to be an easy
game to win, “We knew this
was going to be a four quarter
game. They (Fountain
Lake) have a great team
and a great coaching staff
and they brought their ‘A’
game tonight.” Volarvich
went on to say about the
scoreless second half that
Fountain Lake had a really
good defense and that they
were unable to get anything
going on offense. But that
our defense also stepped up
and made big plays. When
asked about the stray from
running the ball early Volarvich
said it was due to their
defense and that they do
not go into a game planning
to just run, “they played us
a little differently than other
teams played us in the past,
but we don’t go into games
saying hey we’re going to
run this guy or that guy, we
take what the defense gives
us and all the credit to them
because they were able to
shut us down.”
The Scrappers move on
in conference play as they
travel to Waldron on Friday.
