Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Devils make early exit from playoffs

As always, the Go-Devils from Gurdon went to Jessieville fighting hard, but lost the war in the trenches. Jessieville offense plowed through it all, 34-0.

The loss means Gurdon ended its season 6-5 overall and 4-4 in the 7AA-West Conference. Jessieville went to 10-1 with the victory over the Devils..

The Jessieville Lions got in the game with 2:24 left in the first quarter, making it 6-0 and then 7-0.

With 11 minutes in the first half, the score remained 7-0. Then, with the clock closer to having 10 minutes left in that first half, the Lions came on with another touchdown and another good extra point, leaving the score 14-0.

Then with 5:54 left in the half, Jessieville did it again; another touchdown and another extra point, making it 21-0. With 4:54 left in that second quarter, it is first and 10 Go-Devils at the 27. Gurdon's offense was shut down by Jessieville defense. Then Jessieville got another touchdown, 27-0. Then with 37 seconds to go, it was still 27-0.

Devil Frank Smith was not able to play because of a bad ankle. Gurdon had to do a lot of different things to make up for all of the out and injured players. The clock ran out, and that was it, 27-0 Jessieville, going into the second half.

The second half has a better start for the Devils. Their spirits were high and they went with the I formation. Lonnie Lacey got tackled and lost about three yards. T.J. Morgan punted, so Jessieville took over first and 10 in their own territory.

Gurdon's defense started to kick in. But Jessieville went back on the line with the Wing-T. Now then, Courtney Berry made a tackle and pushed something into action defensively. Gurdon took over first and 10 from its 43.

The Devils kept holding them. Third quarter came and went; still 27-0.

With the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Devils get their first first-down of the game. But Jessieville stopped Jamelle Lacy consistently. With 5:48 to go, Jessieville scored again and the extra point was good, making it 34-0.

So with four straight wins, the Gurdon Devils had met their match at the playoffs.

With a couple of minutes left, the Jessieville second string was out there. No more scoring occurred. No change, with 34-0 as a final score, and the stadium was getting empty. The Gurdon Devils season ended right there, in the first round of the playoffs.