The first quarter was a fury with big plays providing 24 of the game’s points in a blow-for-blow like fashion that saw William Monroe taking advantage on misdirection to take the lead at end of the frame on the road against East Rockingham.
From there though, it was a grinder as the Dragons held off a second half surge from the Eagles to preserve at 23-17 win.
“Can’t face too many of those kinds of games,” said Monroe coach Mark Sanford. “They way (the Eagles) were punching away little by little, that could have been dangerous and then it’s a coin toss. Fortunately we came up with a couple of big plays.”
East Rockingham drew first blood on a long drive capped with a short field goal, but the Dragons’ offense hit back on their first play from scrimmage when quarterback Jack Morris sold play-action and launched a pass to an open Jordan Gentry who ran out a 67-yard touchdown.
“In my mind, I didn’t think it’d be a pass for the first play but when it was called I knew Jack was going to look my way,” Gentry said. “He threw it right over my shoulder, it was perfect, a perfect pass.”
The Eagles answered just as quickly though when William Simpson took a run from his team’s own 18-yard line all the way to the endzone for a 72-yard touchdown to reclaim the lead for East Rockingham.
After featuring the pass, Monroe went to work on the run with Doug Sizemore grinding out a few rushes before breaking lose on a 35-yard run to the edge that set up a 6-yard play-action pass from Morris to tight end Zach Duprey for a touchdown to make 14-10.
Monroe’s defense tightened up for the second and third quarter, not only keeping the home team off the board but giving the offense solid position. A long Gentry punt return set up the Dragons next drive, with Sizemore finding the endzone on a fourth and goal play from the 1-yard line to make it 20-10. A short field goal from Adam Weisenborn made it 23-10 at the break.
Little was accomplished scoring wise in the third quarter with both defenses clamping down, but the fourth quarter was much busier.
To start out, the Eagles capped a long drive with a quarterback keeper for 1-yard touchdown to make it a 6-point game. From there, Monroe’s defense had to come through twice, first stopping a drive on a Weisenborn interception midway through the frame, and then coming up with a game-sealing turnover on downs.
Much like their first drives to start the first and fourth quarter, East Rockingham was able to drive into Monroe territory and reach the redzone. But on third and five, Dragons linebacker Devin Frederick was able to get in the backfield and get his hands on Dustin Stewart dropping back to pass. He was quickly joined by Sizemore as the two brought down the quarterback to make it fourth and 15.
“First I thought it was a trap but then I saw the quarterback roll out,” Frederick said of big defensive play. “When I saw him, I ran right into him.”
An incompletion made it Monroe ball with two minutes to play, and after Morris once again sold play-action on second and long to Duprey for a 19-yard gain, Sizemore more moved the chains on two occasions, staying in bounds on each run to allow his team to run out the clock and finish his night with 26 carries for 168 yards.
“I was surprised that I was able to stay in bounds on some of those runs, one of the them I looked down saw the line and just fell over,” Sizemore said. “I really owe (my performance) all to the line, my fullbacks and the wide receivers for all the blocking they did tonight, they did an outstanding job”
The Dragons (3-1) enter their bye week.
“Going in 3-1 instead of 2-2 with an open date is significant,” Sanford said. “Obviously it puts us in a good situation but illustrates the importance to improve week after week. When you go 3-1 you get a bullseye on your chest and we’ve got to be ready for that.”
