Sanford, Lindsey run over Gaston, 34-12

By Scott Wright

TROJAN FIELD – If it hadn’t been for one of his own teammates, Andrew Lindsey’s rushing performance would have made all the sports page headlines this week.

The senior running back carried 14 times for 121 yards and two touchdowns in the Trojans’ 34-12 win over Gaston in week two. But there’s no “I” in team, so Lindsey probably won’t complain too loudly about teammate David Sanford’s show-stealing performance – the undersized freshman was, by far, the biggest man on campus Friday night, rushing 27 times for 256 yards and three scores.

Sanford also caught two passes for 35 yards and returned a kickoff for 23 yards, amassing over 300 all-purpose yards in the Trojans’ home opener. The win marked Gaylesville’s first opening win in region play since Gaston dropped down to Class 1A Region 6 in 2006.

Neither team was able to move the ball on its first possession. After a Gaylesville punt, Gaston got across midfield with a combination of runs and passes before a series of penalties moved the Bulldogs back to their own 38-yard line. A long pass from quarterback Jordan McCartney to receiver Collin Jarbo moved Gaston into the red zone, but a fumble on the next play gave Gaylesville the ball at the 25.

Neither team threatened again until the second quarter, when Sanford led Gaylesville on a 10-play scoring drive that began at the Trojan 9-yard line.

 Sanford had 76 yards rushing on the drive, including the final foot-and-a-half into the end zone with 6:53 left in the second quarter. Michael Zuber added the extra point to complete the first-half scoring.

The Trojans struck again midway through the third quarter. Beginning at the Gaylesville 37, Sanford and Lindsey carried a few Bulldog defenders and dodged the rest. Lindsey covered the final yard on the drive’s eighth play for the TD. Zuber’s PAT made the score 14-0 with just under nine minutes remaining.

After Gaston took to the air and went three-and-out, Gaylesville put together another long drive that ended with Sanford’s 18-yard scoring run on a sweep with six minutes left in the third. With a 21-0 lead the Trojans seemed to have the game well in hand, especially after Gaston fumbled the ball away two plays later.

But the Bulldogs weren’t ready to quit. After a 43-yard punt by Paul Van Pelt, Gaston took possession at its own 5-yard line. As public address announcer Todd Dean made a request for the owners of several cars in the parking lot to unblock the exits for fans who were already beginning to file out, Gaston marched down the field in a hurry. On the second play of the fourth quarter, McCartney’s 61-yard bomb to Jarbo closed the score to 21-6. The PAT was no good.

Gaylesville fans who returned to their seats after hearing the roar on the other side of the bleachers sat down just in time to hear another: On the second play after the ensuing kickoff, it was the Trojans’ turn to fumble away the ball.

The penalty bug that had been buzzing the field throughout the first half stung both teams hard in the third quarter. At one point, there were nine consecutive plays that ended with the referee pointing one way or the other. Gaston had a pair of long pass completions called back before Gaylesville was called for holding on a fourth-and-long play that would have ended a Bulldog drive.

The teams combined for 26 penalties in the game.

On the next play, McCartney snuck up the middle on fourth-and-2 from the 50-yard line and streaked into the end zone untouched. The two-point conversion pass was batted away in the end zone, but the Bulldogs had closed to within nine with 8:55 remaining.

Everyone wearing purple panicked again when the Trojans fumbled away the kickoff, but the Gaston drive lost yardage. On fourth-and-12, the Bulldogs were forced to punt.

With help from Lindsey, Sanford marched the Trojans into the end zone again with six minutes remaining. Despite a missed PAT, the Gaylesville faithful began breathing a little easier with a 27-12 lead.

Desperate pass attempts by the Bulldogs repeatedly fell incomplete and soon resulted in a turnover on downs, but someone forgot to tell Lindsey to run out the clock. Instead he powered into the end zone after taking a handoff up the middle from 34 yards out with 3:25 remaining. Zuber’s PAT closed out the scoring.

“I’ll take a win anytime,” Gaylesville coach Brian Clowdis said after receiving a Gatorade shower from his players in the final seconds. “One-and-oh in this region is huge. Ever since Gaston has been in the region, we’ve been behind after this game and having to fight to catch up.”

Friday night’s win marked Gaylesville’s first triumph over Gaston since 1997.

Clowdis said he was proud of the way his team bounced back after a shaky third quarter.

“It was one of those deals where about everything that could go wrong did in the third,” he said. “It got sloppy for a minute, but they held their composure. For three quarters we played as well as we could play.”

First-year Gaston coach Josh Arnett pointed to his team’s 15 penalties as a determining factor in the outcome.

“We’ve got to learn from it,” he said. “We just had too many mental mistakes. We’ve got another big region game at our place next week, so we’ll just have to go back to work and get ready for it.”