Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Curley Wolves Are Champions! (cont)

number of plays was even in the first half at 28 apiece. Prescott had 17 running plays and Nashville had 16; Prescott had 11 passing plays and Nashville had 12.

However, the Wolves had accomplished much more. They had made 8 first downs to Nashville's 4. But more than that. They had stopped the Scrappers from scoring while the Scrappers had not stopped them. The confidence going into the locker room at halftime had to be great for the Curley Wolves.

In the third period Prescott had 12 offensive plays on the ground and 3 through the air. Nashville only had the 6.

The fourth period began with Prescott in Nashville territory at the 14. Rashad Johnson was stopped for no gain, then Yates kept the ball on the option, but fumbled it away at the 10-yard line for only the second turnover during the game.

On first down Brian Dougan lost a yard for the Scrappers with McBride scrambling to the 13 on the next. McBride then went to the air with a pass intended for Washington, his most popular receiver. However, the pass was slapped away by Johnson, setting up a punting situation.

The punt was taken by Johnson at the 43; he was stopped at the 38.

Yates tried the option again, but was stopped for a loss at the 41. On the next play the ball was fumbled with Yates getting a good bounce among three Scrappers for the recovery. The ball was at the 45 and Prescott was in need of another score.

Yates connected with John Cornelius at the 8-yard line for a first down and just two plays away from another TD.

Al Johnston managed 4 yards on the first play, then the ball was handed off to Heath Duke, who, somehow, found room for running, virtually untouched, through the defensive line that was piled up.

Coach Jackson opted for the 2-point try. Yates found Larry Henderson in the end zone for the pass and the score was 14-0 with 6:59 left in the game.

The Scrappers came out passing, and, narrowly escaping some interceptions, were finally stopped on the Prescott 45 when Sam Marlow nearly got him a pass, as he has more than once this year.

Once more the Wolves were able to penetrate, and they nearly pulled off a fourth and 10 at the 25, but the Scrappers took over on their 22- yard line.

The Wolves had eaten nearly four minutes off the clock with nothing but running plays. At the same Nashville had used up all its timeouts, which definitely meant the Scrappers would pass.

With only 1:38 left in the game the Scrappers did come out passing again, and they were successful this time.

McBride's first pass went to Washington in the flats; Washington gained 15 yards before he was stopped by Cornelius. Washington was McBride's next target that netted 17 yards at the Prescott 46.

Three more pass attempts were tried with all three coming dangerously close to being picked off by Prescott. Various Wolves all had a hand in the way. Finally, McBride connected with John Martin for 16 yards and a first down at the Prescott 30.

He then hit Washington with another pass for a first down at the 19.

A pass for Willie Henry fell incomplete in the end zone, but the next pass found Henry for the touchdown. The snap for the point after kick was high, but Henry managed to run to the corner for two extra points. The score was 14-8 with 10 second left.

Several onside kicks have been attempted this year by Prescott's opponents in hopes of getting the ball for a turnover, but the Wolves managed to get them all. Not so Saturday.

In a desperate try the Scrappers' onside kick was captured by Washington with Nashville needing only one more score.

Coach Jackson had sent Yates in to play in the secondary, and he saw the pass coming. He grabbed it for the turnover and the game was over.

The Wolves were state champs again.

It was the first time ever for two teams from the same conference to be in the finals of the championship game. No doubt they were the best two teams in Class AA. They deserve that recognition. They both received trophies for their performance with the biggest and most important going to Prescott.

Montra Montgomery led Prescott's game attack with 44 yards. Carlos VanHook, who had missed the Clarksville game because of chicken pox, gained 33 yards. Barrett Yates picked up another 28, Rashad Johnson 22, Al Johnston 15 and Heath Duke 13. This comes to 155 yards for the Wolves on the ground.

They had 15 time consuming plays on the ground during the fourth period while Nashville had 16 passing plays that didn't eat up the clock. The Wolves had 4 first downs while Nashville came up with 5 during the period. The main thing is the Wolves ran down the clock and kept the ball away from Nashville much of the time. This was the plan, Jackson said after the game.

There were only five penalties in the game with Prescott getting two for 10 yards and Nashville getting two for 12. One penalty against Prescott was declined.

Each team turned the ball over once on downs. Other than that Prescott fumbled twice to the Scrappers and lost the onsides kick. Nashville lost an interception. The game didn't have too many mistakes.

Nashville's Jason Bethel punted six times for an average of 24 yards. Barrett Yates punted 4 times for an average of 33 yards for the Curley Wolves.