Photo by Jeff Blake/ColumbiaWeddingPhotos.com Dreher running back Leonard Kennedy runs by Brookland–Cayce’s diving Simeon Twitty. For five plays, Dreher inched up the field.

The Blue Devils had started their second possession from their 17. Now, with a little less than 3 minutes left in the first quarter, the ball rested on the 33 – six yards away from a first down.

Twice in the possession, Dreher’s Leonard Kennedy had tried to stretch the defense laterally with his isolation runs and cutbacks – to minimal success.

Thrice, Sheldon Van Dyke had bulled his way straight ahead for a little more than four yards.

Quarterback Jackson Edwards brought the Blue Devils to the line in the same overload formation they had showed on almost every play. Across the ball, the young Brookland– Cayce defense crowded the box, and, when the ball was snapped, blitzed two defenders up the middle.

Photo by Jeff Blake/ColumbiaWeddingPhotos.com Brookland–Cayce’s Gollie Felder runs past Dreher’s Chas Barrineau for a touchdown. Had the play call been a pass or yet another interior run, the defensive call would have meant the Bearcats would have gotten the ball back in good field position, still trailing 7–0. But when Edwards took the snap and immediately began to sprint around the left end, Dreher (2–6, 1–2 Region 5–3A) effectively secured the 28–7 homecoming victory.

“I’ve been praying for that moment – to see a field that wide open – forever,” Jackson said. “I’m so thankful I got to experience it. To be honest, I thought I was going to get caught from behind at the end. I would have never heard the end of it.”

The 67–yard touchdown run gave Dreher a 14–0 lead, more than enough against the Bearcats, who brought only two dozen players to Memorial Stadium and could not stop Dreher’s run game.

Photo by Jeff Blake/ ColumbiaWeddingPhotos.com Dreher’s Jackson Edwards runs for a long touchdown. “We’re playing a bunch of 9th and 10th graders on defense,” Brookland–Cayce head coach Abby Bray said. “They’re trying hard and they’re good young players; it’s just going to take them time.”

Those players were kept on their heels for much of the game because of Van Dyke.

While Kennedy was once again the team’s leading rusher (17 carries, 150 yards), Dreher opponents know to key on the small back as he dashes to the end and looks for either a lane in which to cut back up field or to get outside.

Against Brookland– Cayce, Van Dyke was able to bull forward for 4 or more yards on 13 of his 17 carries. Of the four he didn’t, one was a 2–yard touchdown run (capping the game’s first drive) and another was a fumble when the ball was knocked out while he was still on his feet.

Photo by Jeff Blake/ColumbiaWeddingPhotos.com Vivian Cleveland, along with her escor t Ty–Shawn Dow, reacts after she is named Dreher High School Homecoming Queen during halftime of Dreher’s game against Brookland–Cayce. “We tell our backs to run like nobody is blocking, and he’s sold on that concept because he just lowers his shoulders and keeps his legs moving,” Dreher coach Bill Bacon said.

Van Dyke, who finished with 96 yards and three touchdowns, capped the scoring with one of his longer runs of the season: a 22–yard burst through the left side when Brookland– Cayce blitzed the right side.

“I thought we had them on their heels the whole game,” said Edwards, who rushed for 72 yards on nine carries. “The coaches called a great game, the line was blocking well, and the backs were running hard. It was great; all I had to do was hand the ball off.”

Brookland–Cayce (0–8, 0–3) was led by Gollie Felder’s 62 yards rushing, including 49 on the Bearcats’ 80–yard scoring drive in the second quarter. Quarterbacks Zack Warner and Anthony Brown combined for 83 yards passing but had four second–half interceptions, including two in the red zone.