CALEDONIA — With the Caledonia High School football team nursing a five-point lead and taking possession at midfield with 3:13 left in the game, logic would dictate the Cavaliers would try to run out the clock.
But Zach Gorum and Darrius Triplett had other ideas.
On second down, Gorum ran for 17 yards on a keeper, and Triplett followed two plays later with a 23-yard run, shaking three would-be tacklers along the way to put an exclamation point on the Cavaliers’ 30-18 win over Amory on Friday night.
That’s what happens when you have skilled playmakers running behind an outstanding offensive line.
“I trust all five of our guys up front,” Caledonia coach Michael Kelly said. “All of them are back. They’ve played for three years. When we get up five or six points on somebody and we want to bleed the clock on them, I trust to run behind all five of them and give it to our playmakers and let them play.”
It’s not that Caledonia wasn’t trying to kill the clock; in fact, the Cavs did an excellent job of that on their previous series, taking the ball at their own 16 in the final minute of the third quarter and not giving it back until the 4:59 mark of the fourth.
That drive was marked by five personal foul penalties (two on one play, and two others were offsetting) in a game marked by occasional scuffles. But it also was marked by a successful fake punt, as Karsten Gullette converted on fourth-and-3 from Caledonia’s 23 with a 12-yard run.
That seemed to take the air out of the Panthers, as the Cavs gained 42 yards on their next four plays. That drive reached the Amory 6 before personal foul calls pushed Caledonia back, and a strip on fourth down gave Amory a chance to erase the Cavs’ 23-18 lead.
They had another quick scoring drive to start the second half, this time featuring Curtavis Johnson. After the kickoff went out of bounds, the Cavaliers needed three plays to go 65 yards, with Johnson getting 10 on first down before exploding through the left side of the line for a 34-yard scoring run and a 23-16 lead. In between, Kewon Wyatt took a pitch left and cut up for a 21-yard gain.
Johnson finished with a team-leading 119 yards on 15 carries and two scores for an offense that racked up 348 yards on the ground, 68 of them by Daniel Wilburn on nine carries.
“I think offensively we got comfortable pretty quick, running our game plan,” Kelly said. “Our defense started to get some stops, but we’ve got to get better.”
One of those stops came after Amory took over on downs trailing by five. After a 25-yard run on second-and-27 by Amory’ junior quarterback Jatarian Ware brought the ball to midfield, the Panthers chose to throw on third-and-2 and fourth-and-2. Both passes fell incomplete, one not close and the other off of a receiver’s outstretched fingertips, to set up the Cavaliers’ final scoring drive.
Big mistakes proved costly throughout the game, and the first came quickly as a muffed punt recovered by senior Juarquez Ivy on the first series gave Amory the ball at the Caledonia 15. It took five plays before Jatarian Ware scored on a 2-yard keeper for a 6-0 Panthers lead.
The Cavs benefited from the next one, as Isaiah Brownlee was hit and fumbled after catching a screen pass and linebacker Will Donald recovered for Caledonia at the Amory 49. That set up a short drive noteworthy for the night’s first offsetting penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct but also for a 31-yard run on a keeper by Wilburn. That drive ended in a 34-yard field goal by Braden Walters and a 17-13 Cavaliers lead.
Another miscue gave Amory instant points when a high snap on a Caledonia punt was booted out of the end zone by Gorum for a safety. That pulled the Panthers within one score with more than 3 minutes left in the third quarter, but they would not get another one.
Neither would the Cavaliers, not until Triplett’s run with 1:44 left to play. Triplett finished with 70 yards on 10 carries, but he meant more than that to the offense.
“Darrius Triplett, when you see some of the blocks this kid’s making …” Kelly said. “Then you saw him take one to the house on the last play on offense of the game … He’s a heck of a football player, and I’m glad he’s on our team.”
After missing their opening game — and eight practices — because of COVID-19 protocols, the Cavaliers were anxious to start their season.
“On our side of the ball it looked like a typical first game,” Kelly said. “We looked good at times; we looked bad at times. Our youth showed a little bit on defense, especially up front.
“But Amory came out and played extremely hard, capitalized off of our turnover on the muffed punt, put points on the board early and made us play from behind.”
But the first-half deficit didn’t knock the Cavaliers off of their game.
“We’re going to ground and pound you,” said Kelly, noting his team had two touchdowns called back by penalties. “We’ve got to get where we can throw the ball a little bit. It was tough this week to throw the ball in practice because of the weather, so our timing was a little off. That’s where we were scared going in, not getting some of the work done. We’re going to get that work this week, and we’ll definitely start putting the ball in the air a little bit.”
But while there were some missed assignments and missed reads, there also were no turnovers, and Kelly said those mistakes were typical “first-game stuff” which could be eliminated by Friday night’s at Holly Springs.
Said Kelly: “We’ve got to coach next week, they’ve got to learn from it, get a little more detail and come out ready to play next Friday.”
Caledonia 30, Amory 18
Amory (0-2) 13 3 2 0 — 18
Caledonia (1-0) 7 10 6 7 — 30
First quarter
A — Jatarian Ware 2 run (kick failed), 7:48
C — Curtavis Johnson 1 run (Reed Frady kick), 4:22
A — Allen Dobbs 5 run (Bryn Camp kick), 1:21
Second quarter
C — Darrius Triplett 3 run (Frady kick), 9:34
C — FG Braden Walters 34, 4:19
A — FG Dylan Thompson 26, :00
Third quarter
C — Johnson 34 run (kick failed), 10:46
A — Safety, ball kicked out of end zone, 3:22
Fourth quarter
C — Triplett 23 run (Frady kick), 1:44
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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Kickoff returner Kewon Wyatt sets up Caledonia with good field position during the first quarter of the Cavaliers' 30-18 win over Amory on Friday night in Caledonia. Austin Frayser/Special to the Dispatch
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