2nd look at 1st unit goes well for ’Dogs

By RANDY CAVIN
Press Sports
It looks like the second time was the charm for Gleason and its first unit defense on Tuesday with the Bulldogs’ second scrimmage of the season. The first unit offense did its job, too, against perennial 1A power Lake County.
The Bulldogs’ first team scored four touchdowns against the Falcons, with three scored by the offense and one by the defense, as Gleason came out on top with a 4-3 margin in touchdowns scored.
The defense was nothing short of spectacular. The Falcons scored on their first possession of the game and intercepted a Tanner Trevathan pass for a score to take a 2-1 touchdown lead.
But then, the Gleason defense took over. The first unit was consistently disrupting Lake County’s rhythm by winning the battle at the line of scrimmage. That made the Gleason head coach very pleased.
“I am very happy with the first string guys,” Noah Lampkins said. “We were very aggressive defensively and flying to the football. We were gap sound defensively, and we really got to the football, even when they got the ball downfield we were hitting them.”
The Falcons fumbled six times, thanks to the pressure the Bulldogs were putting on them. Gleason recovered five of those, including one by Austin Perry that he ran back 42 yards for a touchdown to give Gleason a 3-2 lead. Will Clark intercepted a Lake County pass for a 25-yard return, but he was forced out of bounds just five yards short of scoring.
Gleason also had a pair of sacks with Brandon Carrington and Blake Taylor sharing one. Taylor was also in on the second sake with Michael Hudson.
“You start doing things like we did, and you get excited about that,” the head coach said. “We had multiple sacks and the other night we were missing the quarterback. We were not getting to the football. We did not have any fun down at TCA. We had fun tonight.”
The fumble bug also hit the Bulldogs with five fumbles. Two were on the offensive second unit and those were recovered by the Falcons. The fumbles by the second unit were a result of mishandling of the snap and a bad snap.
The offensive first team had its share of fun, too. Kyle Williams had a nice 30-year run on an end-around. Carrington, an offensive lineman, grabbed a tipped pass and turned it into a 15-yard gain. Archie Rich scored on a one-yard plunge to tie the game 2-2.
One thing Lampkins was extremely happy about was the long drives the Bulldogs were able sustain. Gleason had one scoring drive that took 16 plays to complete and another one that took 15 plays.
“Offensively we moved the ball well and we drove it down there,” Lampkins said. “Our two first-team quarterbacks played real well on those long drives. I felt good about our running game, too. There are a few things we have got to tweak. We ran between the tackles pretty well when we needed to and we were able to get down to the goal line and finish.”
Trevathan and Taylor split duties at quarterback for the first team. Chris Sumner played quarterback for the second team.
The Bulldogs will complete their preseason warm-ups when they host Collinwood Aug. 17 in what is a jamboree-style of scrimmage. The varsity will play Collinwood in the first half and both junior varsity teams will play in the second half. Gleason will host Greenfield in Week 1 on Aug. 24. Published in The WCP 8.9.12

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