Defense leads way as Carvers Bay tops Whale Branch, advances in playoffs

Carvers Bay’s defense did more than its share Friday night against Whale Branch in the second round of the Class 2A playoffs.

With its most consistent weapons on offense banged up in the second half, the Bears went to a conservative power rushing game and relied on the defense to hold on to a lead.

It did more than that.

Carvers Bay’s defense outscored Whale Branch’s offense 8-0 with a safety and interception return for a touchdown, and another of the Bears’ three TDs was set up by one of Carvers Bay’s three forced turnovers in a 22-7 win at Big Bear Stadium.

“That’s what we’ve built our team on basically, we’ve built it on defense,” Bears coach Nate Thompson said. “We’re going to play great defense here. We’re going to play some offense, we’re going to learn how to play offense, but we’re going to play some great defense.”

Carvers Bay (9-3) will host Barnwell (11-1) in the 2A state quarterfinals next Friday. Barnwell defeated Woodland 28-6 on Friday.

“Every level you move up gets a little bit harder and you have to put a little bit more into it,” Thompson said. “We’ve got another tough team coming this week, so we’d better get prepared.”

The Bears knew Irvin Mulligan would get the ball Friday. The talented sophomore entered the game with 1,575 yards and 26 touchdowns on the season while gaining 8 yards per carry, and carried the ball on about 70 percent of the Warriors’ plays in last week’s 29-28 win over Mullins in the first round.

“We knew we had to shut him down and close up all those avenues, because he’s the type of guy who will start at one end and go back to the other, and when he does that if you’re not there, he’s gone,” Thompson said.

Mulligan was again a workhorse, rushing 31 times for 133 yards, and the Warriors were held to 137 yards rushing.

“Defensively we were able to control the run game,” Thompson said. “That was one of the main things we wanted to take away, and make them do something they did not want to do, which was pass the ball. So we had to stop the run game. We couldn’t stop it but we slowed it down enough that we took that edge away from them.”

Carvers Bay raced out to a 16-0 lead early in the second quarter. Its third play from scrimmage was a 53-yard touchdown reception by Tyrek Reed, who took a short flare pass from Janaz Sumpter down the right sideline for the score.

After Reed recovered a fumble at the Whale Branch 22, Sumpter scored on a 22-yard run on a draw out of the shotgun, and Quevon Dickerson converted a two-point conversion run for a 14-0 lead.

Levi White fumbled at the goal line on a run on fourth-and-2 from the 4-yard line and the Warriors recovered on the 2. But Whale Branch quarterback C.J. Brown was tackled in the end zone for a safety a few plays into the second quarter.

“We were successful in some things early and that made the difference in the ballgame,” Thompson said.

Whale Branch’s lone touchdown came early in the second quarter, as Jamel Moultrie picked up a punt on a bounce near the right sideline and raced 87 yards down the sideline for a score.

“The major thing tonight was to not give up the big play,” Thompson said. “Now we gave up the big play on special teams and we need to go back and work on that. It’s a good thing it got exposed tonight and not exposed against a team we couldn’t come back on.”

Junior linebacker Malachi Thompson, who played in just the second half and estimates he was in on only about 15 plays, intercepted a short pass over the middle and returned it 25 yards for a touchdown with 4:37 remaining in the game.

The linebacker was hit and fumbled on his return, but he turned to his right and the ball bounced back into his arms and he continued into the end zone.

“I was looking for the quarterback to throw the ball my way, and I wanted to catch it and run it in,” Malachi Thompson said. “I was trying to juke [a Warrior player] and he hit me and I dropped the ball. When I dropped the ball I was nervous it might go out of bounds or I might lose it.”

Junior defensive lineman Dequarius Pressley was a key to the defensive effort, recording several tackles for losses including being in on the 3-yard loss that resulted in a safety.

Defensive end Daquan Carr also had a key tackle for a loss in the third quarter that led to a Warriors turnover on downs.

Daronn Clark intercepted a 30-yard pass in the Carvers Bay end zone on one-on-one coverage with a few minutes remaining to secure the win.

The Bears have nine takeaways in their two playoff games.

“We knew going in they had a strong defense, and I was concerned because we’re kind of one-dimensional on offense. [Mulligan] is our offense,” Whale Branch coach Jerry Hatcher said. “Their defense was a little more than I expected it to be.

“We’re kind of like them. We want to be good on defense and control the ball on offense, and they did a better job than we did tonight.”

The Warriors (7-5), who finished second behind Woodland in Region VI-AA with a 4-1 region record and had won five straight games, were hurt by three high snaps in the fourth quarter.

The first came in shotgun formation on a third-and-4 at the Carvers Bay 6 and resulted in a 12-yard loss and a 35-yard field goal attempt that missed. The second came in shotgun formation again on a third down and forced a punt attempt, and a high snap on the punt resulted in a 15-yard loss that gave Carvers Bay good field position.

“We had opportunities but we couldn’t take advantage of them,” Hatcher said. “We were going to need three points either way you look at it, so we were going to take the field goal and try to come back with a touchdown. That was a problem we had about four weeks ago and we thought we got it fixed but it showed its ugly head again tonight at the wrong time.”

Carvers Bay had modest numbers on offense. Sumpter completed 2 of 6 passes for 59 yards with two interceptions, and Dickerson was the Bears’ leading rusher with 49 yards on 13 carries for 49 yards.

White, who rushed for 175 yards and five touchdowns in the first round and is a backup quarterback, and Sumpter, the starter at QB, were both injured in the game. White had a sore shin after it was hit by a helmet, and Sumpter rolled an ankle while landing on a defender after leaping in an attempt to make an interception on defense in the fourth quarter and did not participate in the final two offensive drives.

In the second half, the Bears predominantly lined up in tight, power formations and ran between the tackles.

“We just packed it in and got into the wishbone and ran the power game,” Thompson said. “We had some injuries and we overcame them. We’ve got to let them heal up and get back in the swing.”

This story was originally published November 26, 2016 at 12:21 AM with the headline "Defense leads way as Carvers Bay tops Whale Branch, advances in playoffs."