Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Winless Curley Wolves Visit Gurdon Friday

By JOHN MILLER

Gurdon -- 2; opponents -- 0.

So far, this is how the 1997 football season has been for the Gurdon Go-Devils: two wins and no losses.

The latest victim was the Lake Village Beavers Friday night at Gus Brown Field, as the Devils posted a 19-0 shutout.

To date, the Devils have surrendered a total of seven points on the season, and those coming off a turnover against Fouke last week.

The Beavers showed up with a massive team. One player was listed at 391 pounds, with another tipping the scales at 345.

However, this size advantage did nothing to help the Beavers as the Devils were ready to play some serious football.

Lake Village won the toss and took the ball at the nine, returning it to the 29.

Play one saw the Beavers cough the ball up and a Devil pounce on the loose pigskin.

Chauncy Charles gained nothing on first down and Gurdon returned the favor with its only turnover of the night.

The Beavers fell on the ball at their own 34, driving it down field to Gurdon's 15 where the Devil "D" stiffened and forced Lake Village to turn the ball over on downs.

The futile drive took more than five minutes and saw the Beavers run 10 plays.

The Devils took control at the 5:14 mark in the first period, keeping the ball the initial two minutes of the second quarter.

Gurdon managed to drive to Lake Village's 37 before having to punt. Jeremy Nix, though, was unable to handle the kick at the 13.

The fumble was recovered by Kaleb Williams, who carried the mail to its proper destination, giving the Devils a 6-0 lead. Williams then stepped up and booted the point after between the uprights to extend the lead to 7-0.

This is how the score remained when the buzzer sounded ending the first half of play.

While both squads showed they could move the ball, neither was able to sustain a drive or even mount a serious threat.

Following the touchdown, the Beavers managed to move the ball 13 yards before punting.

The Devils, though, could only managed four yards before returning the favor.

After swapping punts, the Beavers held onto the ball for 4:37, moving from their own 40 to the Gurdon 39.

Part of Lake Village's problem was laundry day and an impotent passing attack also occurred on this drive. The zebras tossed a pair of major flags at the Beavers, while the quarterback was having problems hitting anything but the ground with his passes.

Lake Village kicked off to start the second half, the only time the Beavers kicked off at all.

Gurdon's Myram Mitchell fielded the kick at the 19, taking it to the 38.

From there, the Devils utilized a total of three plays to finish covering the necessary distance for their second touchdown of the night.

Charles took the first carry to the 47. Antonio Gatlin followed with a run to the Beaver 43.

At this point, Coach John Pace reached into his bag of tricks. He pulled out a reverse to Terry Cornish who sprinted untouched to the promised land.

The point after sailed wide right, but Gurdon still led 13-0.

Ronnie Jackson fielded the kickoff at the 10, taking it the 20.

Lake Village was able to run six plays, recovering one of its fumbles, before being forced to punt again from the Beaver 46.

Pace was more concerned with a fake than anything, so the punt wound up rolling to the Gurdon 21.

With 6:35 left in the period, the Devils simply refused to allow the Beavers to touch the leather.

Of course, the Beavers did help the Gurdon cause with a late hit on senior signalcaller Jared Toland with the Devils facing a third and long.

A facemask later on kept the drive alive, despite the fact the Devils had been moving the wrong direction.

But, Gurdon moved the line to the Beaver 29 as the final 12 minutes showed on the clock.

A third down pass to Gatlin fell harmlessly to the ground, so Pace decided to try for the necessary yardage on fourth down.

Toland was unable to hook up with Cornish and the Beavers took over with 11:31 left.

Ordinarily, this would be plenty of time for a team to score a couple of times, but Lake Village's offense was anemic and unable to keep anything going.

In fact, the Beavers ran three plays and punted on their first series of the fourth quarter.

Adrian Meeks fielded the punt at the Gurdon 34, taking it all the way to the Beaver 31. Unfortunately, the zebras had dropped a hanky and the Devils were nailed with a clipping penalty.

This put the ball at the Gurdon 35 with 9:14 remaining.

A pair of running plays moved the ball to midfield. Charles pushed the pigskin into Beaver territory at the 46 when the Devils went back to their air attack.

However, the passing game was ineffective at this time and Gurdon had to punt again.

Nix handled the ball better this time, taking it from the 15 to the 19 before being introduced to Gus Brown Field literally at the 6:23 mark.

Two plays got the Beavers to the 30 before Steve Taylor was sacked at the 26. On second and 14, the Beavers bobbled the ball, with Keone Penny falling on it at the 26.

With 4:26 remaining in the game, Kenny Hughes carried to the 22 before Williams made his appearance known offensively. Until the fourth quarter, Williams had not touched the ball on offense.

On second down, he plowed to the 16. The officials said he was short of a first down, so he dragged Beavers to the eight before collapsing under their combined weight.

First down saw Williams cover half the distance needed for a score, as he managed to make it to the four.

At this point, the Lake Village players learned how good a signal caller Toland really is. On consecutive plays his hard count drew the defense offside, moving the ball to the one.

The Beavers stacked the line, causing Williams to have to carry the ball twice before cracking the plane of the goal for the touchdown.

The PAT was blocked, but with 63 ticks left on the clock, the Devils had an insurmountable 19-0 lead.

Josh Griffin kicked off to Mario Robinson at the Beaver 20. Here, Lake Village tried a little razzle dazzle and wound up putting the ball on the ground.

The visitors managed to recover the errant ball at their 17.

Lake Village went to the air, managing to stop the clock repeatedly as they tried to avoid being skunked.

The Beavers moved to the Gurdon 45 but ran out of time before they could get close to scoring territory.

Statistically the game was fairly even.

Lake Village ran 41 total plays to Gurdon's 38.

The Devils had 34 yards passing, while the Beavers managed 25. The ground game saw Gurdon with 120 rushing yards to Lake Village's 124.

This gave Gurdon a total of 154 offensive yards, while the Beavers had 149.

Both teams punted three times in the contest, with the Devils netting 82 yards, allowing four yards in return. Lake Village saw its punts sail 95 total yards, with 37 being returned.

Gurdon was flagged four times for 45 yards, while the Beavers