ABERDEEN — The Aberdeen High School football team was humbled in its Week 1 loss to Columbus.
Shannon High caught the wrath Friday night.
Aberdeen held Shannon to 45 yards of offense, forced four fumbles and scored a touchdown in a 22-14 win.
The dominant performance led to Aberdeen”s first win of the season after a 31-14 loss to Columbus last week in a mistake-ridden performance at home.
“We had another good defensive game,” Aberdeen coach Chris Duncan said. “Only difference was we were able to hang onto the ball a little bit better and not hurt ourselves. We beat a good football team tonight.”
Aberdeen took a 14-0 lead in the first quarter when Justin Lucas forced a fumble and Braxton Anderson returned it 30 yards for a touchdown.
Channing Ward and Zavia Forshee each added two sacks, and Aberdeen recorded 15 tackles for a loss.
At halftime, Shannon had just 70 yards of offense, 66 of which came on two passes.
“We took last week”s loss personally,” Forshee said. “We went into this week focused, ready to come out harder than we did last week. (Shannon) was talking a little bit up there (on the line), but we”re a defensive powerhouse. We always have been.”
Shannon”s inability to run the football wouldn”t have been a hurdle if it weren”t for quarterback John Thomas Peugh”s inaccuracy. Peugh hit a wide-open Marcus Thornton for a 35-yard touchdown on fourth-and-22 in the first quarter to cut Aberdeen”s lead to 14-6. But he missed several open targets on the flanks and over the middle and finished 3 of 13 for 70 yards with an interception.
Shannon coach Chad Cook elected to go with Devan Gilleylen, Marcus Thornton, and Nick Pack through most of the second half, abandoning the pistol attack for a more direct rushing attack.
Shannon found brief success with the multiple-quarterback look on its first drive of the third quarter, which was extended after a roughing the punter penalty. Marcus Thornton capped the nine-play drive with a 9-yard touchdown run to cut Aberdeen”s lead to 22-14.
After the Aberdeen offense squandered a chance to score from the Shannon 10, the Bulldogs again leaned on their defense. Aberdeen stalled a pair of Shannon drives deep in Red Raider territory with less than five minutes in the game.
“We probably should have scored there but as a defense we were playing lights out,” Forshee said. “We were focused and playing hard the entire game. We knew our defense had to carry this one.”
Levail McFarland led Aberdeen with 67 yards on 21 carries and a touchdown, while Justin Walker logged 58 on 14 carries. As a team, the Bulldogs rushed for 159 yards.
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