Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Seven players score as Carey routs ?Dogs 50-0

Homecoming game with Dietrich is Friday


By JEFF CORDES
Express Staff Writer

Rockland Bulldogs veteran coach Steve May has seen plenty of Sawtooth Conference eight-man football games, players and teams over the years. He has enjoyed grid success, going 73-50 over 13 seasons. His impressions carry weight.

After the first quarter of Friday's Rockland-Carey pivotal league game at The Dog Pound in eastern Idaho, May made a comment to a sideline observer, a Rockland fan carrying a camera. Gesturing in Carey's direction, May said, "That's a pretty solid team."

It was already evident that Rockland's Homecoming football game was going to finish early with Rockland on the short end. Carey built a 30-0 lead after 12 minutes, a first period that featured an overwhelming 237-16 Panther edge in rushing and passing yards.

Coach Lane Kirkland's Panthers breezed to a 50-0 league win with seven different players scoring touchdowns. The game ended on the 45-point mercy rule with eight minutes and 40 seconds left. Carey outgained Rockland 480-151.

Senior quarterback D.J. Simpson scored first on a two-yard plunge and threw TD passes to senior Scott Ellsworth covering 33 yards and junior Heith Adamson for 30 yards. Gonzalo Zarate, Antonio Gamino and Dillon Simpson tallied running TDs and sophomore Trevor Peck caught the first TD pass by sophomore back-up QB Dillon Simpson.

It was a rout, Carey capitalizing with touchdowns on all four Rockland turnovers.

The difference was Carey's speed, depth and execution. The Panthers didn't commit a turnover and contained Bulldog senior southpaw quarterback Tim Jones (4 yards rushing, 99 yards passing).

Kirkland said, "We knew we could run because of our speed and knew we could execute good blocks. We had no turnovers and were much more disciplined. We also had excellent pursuit on defense from every angle and really contained Jones well. We practice as a team and continue to execute as we've practiced."

The #2-ranked 1A Division 2 Carey Panthers (4-1, 3-0 league) won their third straight road game and are happy to be coming home for their Homecoming football game against the Dietrich Blue Devils (3-1, 3-0) Friday, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. at Derrick Parke Memorial Field.

Dietrich, also boasting three straight wins, is averaging 49.5 ppg including last Friday's 78-30 home mercy-rule win over Camas County—a game during which Blue Devils senior stud Anthony Pitman scored five touchdowns, rushed for over 150 yards and caught three TD passes from Tyrell Porter.

After Friday's win over Rockland, Kirkland said, "I felt if we could contain (Tim) Jones, it would be a good trial run to see what we could do with Pitman. Hopefully we'll get better each week and will peak (with the State 1A Division 2 title game) on Nov. 17."

They did pretty well Friday.

Carey drove 86 yards in nine plays on its opening drive, the big gainer a 47-yard pass from D.J. Simpson (4-for-7, 113 yards) to Kade Peterson right down the middle seam. Blake Whitby (8 carries, 80 yards) ran a counter for 24 yards to set up Simpson's down-and-out TD pass on the right to Scott Ellsworth.

The third Panther score came after Peterson stripped the ball from Rockland QB Jones and Zarate recovered the fumble. Simpson threw to Heith Adamson for a 30-yard TD. Simpson's interception of a Jones aerial led to a five-play, 57-yard scoring drive that featured a 33-yard Whitby option run. Zarate ran the right end for the 21-yard touchdown.

So the 30-0 first period ended with Carey scoring four TDs, converting three of four two-pointers, running 24 plays to Rockland's 10, possessing the ball for eight of 12 minutes and going 6-0 in first downs.

Coach Kirkland started substituting his younger players in the second quarter and they did well. He said, "Before the game we reminded our team that Rockland was ranked fourth in the state, and we built on that. It was a good confidence-building win for our team."

Rockland (3-2, 2-1) had its three-game win streak snapped.

Meanwhile, Carey boasts three mercy-rule league wins and has played only 96 of a possible 148 minutes, all on the road, in trouncing Richfield 50-0 Sept. 7, Camas County 56-0 Sept. 14 and Rockland 50-0. The Panthers have won 16 of their last 17 games against Rockland.

Looking ahead to Homecoming, Carey has won four straight games over Dietrich since an 84-48 loss to the Blue Devils in Carey in 2003.

Last year at Dietrich, Carey prevailed 46-24 with Connor Rivera rushing for 146 yards and three TDS and QB D.J. Simpson throwing for 147 yards and three TDs. Pitman rushed for 144 yards and two scores.

Two years ago host Carey whipped the Blue Devils 62-16. But Dietrich is on the mend after 4-6, 4-5 and 1-8 seasons the last three years.

See complete statistics from the Carey-Rockland game on this week's Express Web site.




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