ABERDEEN — The Aberdeen High School football team’s up-and-down the field 36-28 victory against Amory had almost as many potential story lines Friday as there were touchdowns in the 79th renewal of the rivalry between Monroe County’s two largest schools.
Take your pick from the following five options:
One: The game featured a brother vs. brother coaching duel between Amory coach Ben Ashley and his brother, Burt, Aberdeen’s line coach.
Two: Gene Ward, the game’s referee who coached at Aberdeen back in the 1970s, coached Ben and Burt when they played football at Pontotoc.
Three: For the second week in a row, the Bulldogs faced an opposing coach who, at one time, was an Aberdeen coordinator.
Four: The two quarterbacks standing at the end, both of whom wore No. 5, combined to rush for 382 yards, score six touchdowns, and account for three two-point conversions.
Five: Two of the headliners for both teams were named Gates, Tyreke Gates for Aberdeen and Zatorious Gates for Amory.
Finally, Tyreke Gates started the fireworks for Aberdeen with a 97-yard touchdown on the opening kickoff and then stripped the ball from a ball carrier to end Amory’s bid to tie the game in the final seconds.
Gates’ electrifying dash with the kickoff gave Aberdeen a 6-0 lead 20 seconds into the game and set the stage for an offensive explosion that Aberdeen coach Mark Bray didn’t expect.
“After our performance last week against New Hope (a 35-8 loss), I expected this game to be a low-scoring, defensive struggle like the fourth quarter turned out to be,” Bray said. “Never did I think it would be a shootout and both teams would combine to score 64 points in only three quarters.”
Ben Ashley, who was an assistant at Aberdeen High under his cousin, former Aberdeen coach Andy Stevens in 2003-04, credited both offenses.
“They (Aberdeen) made some incredible plays on offense and, as it turned out, they made one more play than we did,” said Ashley, who added his team left at least 21 points on the field when it lost out on several sure-fire scoring opportunities. “But that’s what happens. Sometimes you make the plays and sometimes you don’t.
“We had a shot at several scoring chances — once in the first quarter, then a fumble inside the 15 in the second quarter, an interception in the end zone right before halftime, a yard short on a fourth-and-three inside the 10 in the fourth quarter, and the fumble at the end of the game.”
Gates’ opening kickoff runback, his 29-yard touchdown scamper with 12 seconds left in the first quarter and Jerrick Orr’s two-point catch gave Aberdeen a 14-point cushion. Coupled with four consecutive Amory three-and-outs followed by a lost fumble on its fifth possession, it appeared Aberdeen was on its way to an easy win.
But Zatorious Gates came off the bench to replace starter Gunnar Hall and made an immediate impact. On his second series, he scored on a 51-yard keeper midway through the second quarter. After Aberdeen had taken a 20-7 lead on Josh Williams’ 38-yard touchdown run, Gates scampered 55 yards for a touchdown on the Panthers’ next possession to make it a 20-13 with 3 minutes, 22 seconds left before half.
“Using Gates in the Wildcat package gave us a chance to win the game,” Ashley said.
Aberdeen fumbled the ensuing kickoff at its 25-yard line, but Orr made up for it one play later when he outbattled 6-foot-6 Phillip Tyra and came up with an end zone interception to end the threat.
A 32-yard kickoff return by T.J. Fields and a 15-yard pickup by Immanuel Jones set up Gates’ third touchdown, a 30-yard effort, 36 seconds into the third quarter. Caleb Shelly’s kick tied the game at 20 and brought the Amory fans to their feet.
Undaunted, Aberdeen responded with an eight-play, 65-yard march capped off by a 10-yard touchdown run by Williams, who scored while carrying defender Hayden Randolph on his back the final 5 yards. Tyreke Gates’ conversion run gave Aberdeen (2-1) an eight-point lead with 8:07 left in the third period.
But Amory (1-2) came right back with a five-minute, 73-yard march to score the game-tying points with 3:12 left in the third quarter. Austin Renfro fumbled the ball away inside the Aberdeen 5, but guard Stanley Ostrowski fell on it in the end zone and then Gates added the conversion run to knot things up at 28-all.
Aberdeen scored the game-winner three minutes later on a 2-yard plunge by Deonte Carter and Williams added the conversion run to assure Aberdeen’s sixth-straight win in the A-Game series.
Both teams came up with defensive stops on their next series. Aberdeen’s Justin Drake and Cratic stopped Fields 1-yard short on a fourth-and-3 at the Bulldogs’ 8 with 7:18 left in the fourth. Amory returned the favor four minutes later by stopping Williams 2 yards shy on a fourth down run at the Panthers 4.
For the most part, Amory’s defense kept Aberdeen’s vaunted passing attack in check.
“They (Amory) took the pass away and made us run,” Bray said. “If they hadn’t backed up to take the pass away, it might have gotten ugly.”
Bray wasn’t happy with his team’s defense, particularly against the run. The Bulldogs surrendered 346 yards rushing — 218 by Gates, who had rushed for only 24 yards the first two games.
“No. 5 (Gates) is a tremendous athlete,” Bray said. “He was the difference for Amory’s offense. That’s for sure.
“The bad part was we knew what they were going to do. They ran the jet sweep just like they did when coach Moss (Justin) was the offensive coordinator here several years ago. Wherever the fullback went, the ball went just like we picked up on film, but we couldn’t stop it.”
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