Bruins blanket Raiders

Published 1:21 am Saturday, November 4, 2006

For eight tantalizing games — almost nine — Northwest Whitfield linebacker Aaron Tapia was sackless.

He picked a good time to record his first of the season on Friday.

With Northwest leading the Southeast Raiders 14-0 with under six minutes left in the fourth quarter, Tapia sacked quarterback Eli Roberson on a fourth down play to help the Bruins wrap up the win and leave the door open for a Region 7-4A title.

“I’ve come so close to getting a sack,” Tapia said. “I was tired of coming close to getting one. When he called the play, I thought in my mind, ‘I’m getting it.’ As soon as the ball moved, I went.”

Northwest quarterback Drew Carter passed for two touchdowns and the defense held Southeast to 195 yards total offense as the Bruins (8-1, 5-1 Region 7-4A) held onto the two-touchdown victory over the Raiders (1-7, 0-6). Northwest will be crowned region champs if they beat Rome and Dalton loses to Ridgeland.

But on senior night with a region title dancing in their heads, the Bruins may have had their minds elsewhere. Eight penalties — lowlighted by two consecutive offsides in punt formation that gave Southeast a first down — and a high snap that caused a blocked field goal were the glaring gaffes.

“It was sloppy,” Northwest head coach Mike Falleur said as he munched on a piece of pizza during a postgame interview. “We had just dumb mistakes you can’t do. We work on stuff all year and tonight it was just dumb things. You just go to work next week and try to make them aware of what they need to do.”

The miscues, coupled with Southeast’s hard-nosed defense, helped the Raiders hang tough throughout the entire game. Fullback Jacob King (13 carries for 105 yards) helped spark Southeast’s offense with a 69-yard run on their first possession of the second half. With the ball resting on Northwest’s 10 yard line, Southeast’s offense stalled and three plays later kicker Jesus Lerma missed a 35-yard field goal that sailed wide right.

“We played tough,” Southeast head coach John Lovingood said. “We played great defense. I don’t think in the second half they got very much at all. Offensively, we moved the ball but just couldn’t stick it in for whatever reason. You get the ball in the opponent’s end, you’ve got to find a way to score.”

Northwest did. Twice.

On Northwest’s first possession of the game, the offense had a 6-play, 62-yard drive punctuated by Carter’s 9-yard touchdown pass to tight end Josh Hall — his first catch of the year — with 8:08 left in the first quarter. The scoring would subside until under a minute remaining in the second quarter when Carter found running back Blake Gash on a fly pattern for a 23-yard score.

Roberson, who completed 2 of 18 passes for 39 yards but played a strong game at linebacker, pointed to his critical fumble late in the game that was recovered by defender Adam Miller at the Bruin 41-yard line.

“We had a chance to go in and score,” Roberson said. “It’s tough.”

Gash and linebacker Rhett Headden — two key Bruin players on either side of the ball— left late in the fourth quarter with injuries, but a member of the Northwest medical staff thought they would be OK.

Tapia was confident the Bruins won’t be intimidated by Rome and its hostile environment.

“It’s just another game for us,” Tapia said. “We’re just going to do what the coaches tell us to do. They coach us very well. It’ll be a tough game, but if we go down there and play hard we can come out with a win.”