Carvers Bay, White roll over Buford in Class 2A first round

Carvers Bay defensive coordinator Matt Richard challenged senior running back Levi White this week.

With Buford and talented junior quarterback Ryan Moore coming to Big Bear Stadium for a first-round Class 2A playoff game and sharing White’s No. 2 jersey number, the coach wanted to see who was No. 1 among the No. 2s.

White responded with his best performance of the season, rushing for 175 yards and five touchdowns on 13 carries despite having just two carries in the second half to lead the Bears to a 50-19 win.

“My coach was picking with me all week, saying he was going to find out who the real No. 2 is because their quarterback is a good dude, he’s a good player,” White said. “I took it very personally. I didn’t like it so I had to show him. I was not going to leave this game without him seeing that that other man wasn’t better than me.”

White carried tacklers for multiple yards on several runs, and he sat most of the second half with most of the other starters after the Bears opened up a big lead early in the third quarter.

“I just ran with heart. I brought my A heart. I did not want to go home,” White said.

Carvers Bay (8-3), the Region VII-2A champion, will host Whale Branch next Friday in the second round. Whale Branch defeated the Bears’ region foe Mullins 29-28 on Friday.

“Just because you’re a No. 1 seed, that just puts a big target on your back,” Bears coach Nate Thompson said.

Buford (3-9), the No. 5 seed from Region IV-2A, moved the ball effectively in the first half, particularly through the air as Moore completed 15 of 22 passes for 175 yards and two touchdowns in the first two quarters.

But Carvers Bay’s pressure led by defensive linemen Byron Young and Rodrick Scott and punishing hits took their toll in the form of four first-half turnovers, and six turnovers overall. Moore was just 4 of 6 for 19 yards in the second half.

“For four quarters we wanted to stay after them and push them,” Carvers Bay coach Nate Thompson said. “… By doing that they’re either going to wear down or that’s when fumbles and things happen when you keep hitting and hitting, and we kept trying to get new bodies in so it kind of made a difference.”

The turnovers started early, as John Frazier intercepted the first play from scrimmage and returned it 25 yards to the Buford 9-yard line to set up a 9-yard run by White.

Quevon Dickerson added an interception late in the second quarter, Scott recovered a fumble in the first quarter and Young forced and recovered a fumble on a sack in the second quarter. The Bears had a third interception in the first half negated by a roughing the passer penalty, and added a pair of fumble recoveries in the second half.

Buford coach Tripp Watts thought the Bears’ athleticism and speed was as much of a factor as their physical play.

“They are physical. They go after you. But in my opinion their speed caused a lot of things for us. They’re a very athletic team,” Watts said. “They played physical and hit us in the mouth. On film you don’t see that. You can tell the defensive ends are good and the tackles are good, but on film we didn’t think the offensive line was that physical, and they came out and got us.”

White had 116 yards rushing and four touchdowns on 11 carries in the first half, and finished with 175 yards and five scores on 13 carries following limited action in the second half.

Buford matched Carvers Bay score for score early, as Moore threw touchdown passes of 18 yards to Isaah Nesbit and 14 yards to Shylyn Wright and the Yellow Jackets trailed just 14-13 but couldn’t keep up the pace. “We knew we could hurt them in the pass but we turned the ball over a lot,” Watts said.

Buford broke a number of long gains on screen passes early before the Bears adjusted. “They took advantage of our speed rush and played it against us,” Thompson said. “Going into the second quarter we learned to slow it down a little bit and give up the things underneath but we weren’t willing to give up anything deep.”

The Bears scored the final 22 points of the first half to take a 36-13 lead and carried their momentum into the second half with a pair of touchdowns in the opening 1:20. A quick three-play drive in the first minute included a 57-yard White run and was capped by a 2-yard White touchdown run, and following a fumble on the ensuing kickoff, Andre Marks gained 24 yards to the 1 and punched in a TD.

Carvers Bay didn’t need much more than its power rushing game offensively, as quarterback Janaz Sumpter completed one of three passes for 37 yards and had 28 yards and a TD on four carries.

“Offensively we just kind of lined up and went toe to toe. That’s what we ended up doing,” Thompson said.

The Bears had last week off because they didn’t need the extra week afforded teams to complete the season in the wake of cancellations caused by Hurricane Matthew in early October, and White thought the extra week of preparation paid dividends.

“We could really get down and get to the nitty-gritty and get the little things right, that way I knew where to cut and knew where to run, so that helped us out a lot,” White said.

This story was originally published November 19, 2016 at 12:54 AM with the headline "Carvers Bay, White roll over Buford in Class 2A first round."