WEST COLUMBIA – The East offense had a distinctive Blythewood touch in the East-West Metro Bowl Friday night at Brookland-Cayce stadium.
Bengals quarterback Josh Strickland saw significant time under center, while his favorite target on the night of East’s 19-17 victory over the West was none other than teammate David Patten.
“It was really fun meeting all the kids from around the Midlands and getting to know them. It was a real great experience building friendships.”
Strickland, who completed 9 of 15 passes for 134 yards split time with Metro Bowl MVP Jamison Ganzy. The Lower Richland senior quarterback was 6-for-12 for 103 yards and a touchdown pass to Patten. Ganzy also rushed for 30 yards and a touchdown.
“It was an incredible experience all week,” Ganzy said. “Hard work on offense and defense the whole week. I loved it. The game, there’s nothing better than that.”
Patten led all receivers with five catches for 60 yards on the night.
“It was a fun night,” Patten said. “We put in a lot of work during the week.”
Both teams played close to one another, with West leading 17-16 in the final 1:35 of play.
With Strickland under center on the final drive, East took the ball at its own 20-yard line following West’s missed field goal from Mid-Carolina’s Drew Dominick.
Stickland marched East down the field in seven plays, completing passes to Blythewood teammate David Patten, Spring Valley’s Hunter Rogers, and Camden’s Landon Goodwin. Keenan’s Jevaris DeSant caught Strickland’s last pass of the night, a 23-yard catch and run play to the West 16-yard line, which set up Dyson Roberts’ 33-yard game-winning field goal with no time on the clock.
Roberts was the East MVP.
“We just had to get something going, we hadn’t done a lot on offense,” Strickland said. “We got on the same page and it went well.”
West’s Deonte Baker of Brookland-Cayce led all rushers with 154 yards on 16 carries. He claimed the West MVP honors.
Besides Strickland and Patten, several other Blythewood-Fairfield County players made the game. Westwood’s Christian Horn, Matt Brown, C.J. Johnson, and Sean Artiss, and Fairfield Central’s Marcus Alston made the East roster.
East – 7-3-6-3 – 19
West – 0-10-7-0 – 17
1st Quarter
E – David Patten 3 pass from Jamison Ganzy (Dyson Roberts kick) 3:35
2nd Quarter
W – Shauntrel Hendrix 6 run (Drew Dominick kick) 8:12
E – Roberts 36 field goal. 5:52
W – Dominick 37 field goal 3:16
3rd Quarter
W – DeIrvin Grate 15 pass from Roger Pedroni (Dominick kick) 8:33
E – Ganzy 4 run (kick failed) 1:58
4th Quarter
E – Roberts 33 field goal :00
East West
First Downs 19 17
Rushes-Yards 24-119 39-231
Passing Yards 242 62
Att-Com-Int 30-17-0 19-8-0
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 0-0
Penalties-Yards 8-68 5-33
Punts-Avg. 6-36.8 6-32.8
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing: E – Marquel Brown 8-86, Jamison Ganzy 11-30, javaris DeSant 4-3, Josh Strickland 1-0. W – Deonte Baker 16-154, Roger Pedroni 11-46, Markco Gilmore 5-24, Shauntrel Hendrix 1-6.
Passing: E – Josh Strickland 9-15-0-154, Jamison Ganzy 6-12-0-103. W – Roger Pedroni 8-15-0-62, Marcko Gilmore 0-3-0-0.
Receiving: E – David Patten 5-60, Davea Cauthen 3-44, Deiondre Patton 3-9, Landon Goodwin 2-48. W – Jamias Holloway 4-24, Jervon Whitt 1-15, Matt Reed 1-10, Noah Bell 1-8.
