Bobby Berry never doubted his players.
Even though the West Lowndes High School football team trailed Caledonia by one point in the second quarter, Berry knew his team”s big-play potential gave it the ability to turn the momentum in a hurry.
Having Antonio Wilson and Brandon Clark as weapons makes things a little easier.
Wilson rushed for 183 yards and two touchdowns, while Clark had two interceptions and recovered two fumbles to help West Lowndes defeat Caledonia 28-19.
“I just told the kids to keep working hard and go out and do the things I thought we could do because I thought we could come back,” Berry said. “We have to keep improving and getting better.”
Wilson scored on a 15-yard run in the second quarter to give the Class 2A Panthers (2-1) the lead for good, 20-14, in the second quarter. The touchdown answered a 66-yard touchdown run by Caledonia”s Tyler Lowe, who had a team-high 153 rushing yards.
Clark also caught a 37-yard touchdown pass from Tyquan Lucious in the third quarter that helped the Panthers pull away. He also was on the spot on defense, helping to snuff out several potential scoring drives by the Confederates.
“We did pretty good,” Clark said. “We just have to work better. We made a lot of offensive and defensive mistakes, and we have to work hard in practice this week.”
Richard Keene had a 3-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and a 14-yard touchdown pass to Eric Douglas in the fourth quarter for the Confederates (0-3).
Caledonia coach Ricky Kendrick was proud of the way his team moved in the ball in amassing 280 rushing yards, but turnovers and penalties hurt his squad at key junctures.
“We”re getting tired of moral victories,” Kendrick said. “We”re scoring points and we”re moving the football. We”re doing a lot of good things, good things these kids haven”t seen in a long time. They”re learning how to compete right now. When that pressure turns up, we have to become cheerleaders to prevent them from going back to that old mind-set.”
The loss was the 22nd in a row for Caledonia.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.