NEWBERRY – The Eagles did not let their first loss of the season cause a hangover going forward, as they defeated the Newberry Academy Eagles by a 55-6 margin. Richard Winn scored the first 41 points of the game before Newberry scratched the score board as the Eagles move to 5-1 on the season.
Richard Winn finished the game with a 394 to 51 yardage advantage with 200 of its 394 yards coming through the air. Junior Dru Caldwell had a breakout performance as he went 13-14 passing for 200 yards and five touchdowns. He also rushed for a 15-yard touchdown. Brandon Miller rushed for 153 yards and two touchdowns while also catching a 17-yard touchdown for three total touchdowns. Gavin Douglas led the Eagles with 59 yards receiving and a touchdown. Hudson Wade, B Baker and Derek Branham also caught touchdowns.
Miller led the way for the Eagles with five total tackles while Sam Clyburn recorded two and a half sacks.
“We expected to come out and play well,” said head coach Paul Brigman. “Last week was a heart breaker but the guys responded well, we had a great week of practice. Everyone was positive, we put last week behind us and we realize that we can still accomplish every goal that we set at the beginning of the year. Nothing has been lost in those regards so we still feel good about the season and we can start working our way back to getting those guys (Clarendon Hall) again.”
The Eagle defense opened the game forcing four straight three-and-outs, and the offense capitalized with touchdowns on its first six possessions. Overall, they scored on eight of their ten series with the ball. One possession ended with an interception, and the other ended when time ran off the clock at the end of the game.
Miller scored the first two touchdowns of the game on runs of 39 and four yards. Wade scored the Eagles’ third touchdown on an eight-yard reception. Miller added a 17-yard touchdown catch, his third touchdown overall, to make the score 27-0 with 11:10 to play in the second. The Eagles’ next score came on a 33-yard pass from Caldwell to Baker. Caldwell then cracked the 40-point mark with his 15-yard touchdown run with 6:59 to play in the half.
Newberry found the end zone on its eighth series as Hendrix caught a 71-yard pass from Gardner with 00:39 to play in the half making it 41-6. The Eagles did not take long to respond as Caldwell connected with Douglas on the first play on the next drive for 59 yards and a score, making it 48-6 at half.
“It is hard to get the guys motivated, to keep them focused, but our guys did a great job with it,” said Brigman, explaining how getting the team focused to play weaker competition is more difficult. “We knew we had something to prove after last week. We felt like we were the better team last week and just gave it up at the end. As a team we wanted to prove to ourselves and to everybody else that we are as good as we think we are and we had to come out and take care of business tonight in order to do that.”
The Eagles got the ball to start the second half and only took five plays to go 50 yards and score. Branham caught the seven-yard touchdown pass from Caldwell to make it 55-6. The second half was shortened to six minute periods with running clocks.
Richard Winn is at home this weekend facing Laurens Academy. Laurens comes into the contest with a 2-3 record while the Eagles are 5-1. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.
