ABERDEEN — Like most football coaches, Aberdeen’s Mark Bray expects to win every game on his schedule.
Faced with a daunting six-game non-division slate that included five teams with at least one recent state championship title on their respective resumes, Bray, ever the realist, said in August he’d be happy with a 3-3 split entering the team’s division schedule.
Aberdeen’s 32-21 win against Louisville on Friday not only gave the Bulldogs a 4-2 record to exceed Bray’s modest expectations, but the 11-point decision also was the team’s first against the Wildcats.
“I would have been happy with a 3-3 record over the course of the first six games,” said Bray, coming off a victory against Class 2A defending state champ West Bolivar last week. “This win tonight was special for so many reasons, and it sure beats how we started off last year at 2-4.”
Aberdeen took a 14-0 lead only to see the Wildcats tie it at 14 with a late touchdown just before the half thanks in part to a couple of Aberdeen blunders and an impressive passing performance from junior quarterback Wyatt Roberts, who was 12 of 17 for 181 yards in the first half.
“We struggled defensively the first half, but we made some adjustments at halftime and things turned around after that,” Bray said. “We also stressed to the team that we needed to take ownership of the third quarter — something we haven’t done all year — and the kids responded.”
Freshman Deonta Carter took his coach’s advice to heart and came up with a fumble recovery on Louisville’s first possession of the second half. Wide receiver Sammie Burroughs then grabbed a 27-yard strike from quarterback Josh Williams to cap a four-play, 58-yard drive to break the tie.
Three plays later, Burroughs returned an interception to the Louisville 18 to set up a 12-yard touchdown pass on a middle screen from Williams to Justin “Bull” Lucas.
One play into the fourth quarter, Louisville middle linebacker Jeremy Sangster returned a fumble 25 yards for a touchdown. The ensuing extra point made it 26-21 12 seconds into the final period.
Undaunted, the Bulldogs marched 70 yards in 10 plays to score their final points on a 17-yard touchdown pass from Williams to Lucas with 7 minutes, 51 seconds left in the game.
Aberdeen had 343 yards total offense, including 279 rushing yards.
“We had a pretty good idea that we could run on them based on their alignments after breaking down the film,” Aberdeen offensive coordinator Alex Williams said. “We busted a big-gainer with Chico (Harrison) on the first play and we just kept at it the rest of the game.”
Harrison, whose 21-yard gainer on Aberdeen’s first play set the tone, rushed for 180 yards on 28 carries, 118 of which came in the first half. Williams called his number 27 times and rushed for 94 yards and one touchdown
Lucas only had 5 yards rushing on four carries, but the senior two-way star scored three times — once on a 3-yard run and twice on clutch pass receptions totaling 29 yards. He also hauled in a two-point conversion pass to account for 20 of Aberdeen’s 32 points.
“Chico and Josh ran the ball well, but their success was attributable to our offensive line,” Williams said. “Guys like Brandon Hodges, Tavoris Eckford, Jahrel Wilson, James Randle, Bobby Ward, and Jamarcus Talley, they stepped up and dominated the line of scrimmage for us and did a tremendous job blocking.”
Aberdeen’s halftime adjustments held Louisville to 58 yards in the second half (42 passing, 16 rushing).
“We weren’t getting any pressure on their quarterback the first half and he ripped us up pretty good,” Aberdeen defensive coordinator Sammie Burroughs said. “Coach Clay (Thomas) and I fixed some things at halftime and we played lights-out defense the rest of the game.”
Burroughs credited his entire defense for making the turnaround, but said freshman Deonta Carter, Justin “Bull” Lucas, Aaron McMillian, Sammie Burroughs Jr., Tyre Carothers, and G.G. Blanchard led the way.
Louisville coach M.C. Miller wasn’t satisfied with his team’s effort.
“We didn’t play hard like we should have,” Miller said. “We didn’t tackle well and we didn’t do our part to make this a game. But the bottom line is that Aberdeen is a very good team and they just out-played us in all aspects of the game.
“We’re a young team that lost 16 seniors from last year, but that’s no excuse. We’ll go back to the drawing board and we’ll get better.”
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