Andy Termites win, Straughn next
Published 12:00 am Thursday, October 31, 2002
The Andalusia Termite Bulldogs continued their winning streak with a muddy 16-0 victory against the Elba Tigers at home this past Saturday.
Andalusia, won the coin toss and deferred to the second half, permitting Elba to start out on offense.
The Bulldog defense came ready to play in a game that would be known as a mudfest. For the first series of downs, the Bulldogs held the Tigers to no gain on three downs with outstanding performances from Chad Moody, O'Brien "Chuckles" Curry and Darius "Wild-Man" Sheriden forcing the Tigers to punt.
The Andalusia players got their first chance on offense under the leadership of quarterback Garrett "Cricket" Cross and allowed D.L. Smith to show off some of his mystifying talent. Smith only gained five yards on his first carry, but on the very next play he ran for a 60-yard touchdown behind the crushing blocks of his offensive personnel Shane "Bulldog" Culbreth, Lex "Sting-Ray" Bradley, Johnnie "Bobcat" Jones, Tyler "T-Man" Campbell, Stevie "Turtle" Duebelt and Joseph Hayden for the Bulldogs first six points of the game. Brice "Super-Fly" Gantt showed off some of his moves by tacking on two more points with a successful conversion.
Despite the fact that the rain stopped, the weather still took a toll on the game. In the second quarter, fumbles were floating all around. Andalusia's started with a gain of 26 yards by Smith just to be halted by a fumble on the very next play. Elba took over and fumbled three times on their next series of downs. The third fumble, recovered by the Bulldogs' Sheriden, not only stalled Elba's drive but also gave Andalusia a chance to score before the half.
Andalusia took advantage of the turnover and scored after a gain of 32 yards on three plays on an 11- yard halfback pass from Smith to Mason "Snake" Lee for his first touchdown of the season. Gantt added the two-point conversion to put the Bulldogs up 16-0.
In the second half of the game, C.P. Rogers took over at quarterback for Andalusia. Despite the efforts of young running backs Tarence Anderson, Jerome Mathews, Cornelius Calloway and Derrick King behind the blocking of Andrew "Moose" Tolbert, Kyle Kirkland, Justin Woods, Nate "Bear" Brawner, Travis Mack, Shermon Denson and P.J. Samuel, Elba's defense prevented the Bulldogs from adding points to the scoreboard.
"I'm very proud of these young men," Bulldog Head Coach Neal Campbell said. "I didn't know what to expect with all the rain and all. I do know from talking with the kids they did have a lot of fun playing football in the mud. With all the hard work they have given throughout the season it was good to see them having fun."
The only two undefeated Termite teams square off Saturday as Andalusia travels to the stadium at Straughn School to take on the Straughn Tigers for the final regular season game of the year.