Football -- Rosewood dominates Jones Senior

By Gabe Whisnant
Published in Sports on August 22, 2004 2:02 AM

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The Rosewood football program will do just fine without Mr. Javon Williams, thank you.

That was the message sent out to everyone at Branch Pope Field as the Eagles defeated Jones Senior 51-28 in the season-opening game Friday night. The combined rushing efforts of Derrick Bennett and Ronnie Butler, along with the arm of Danny Langston, proved that the Eagles offense is as explosive as ever.

Bennett had three touchdowns and ran for 119 yards on just seven carries, while Langston threw for a pair of touchdowns and 134 yards on 5-for-10 passing.

The first quarter panned out dead even as both teams shook loose the first-game nerves and scored. The visiting Trojans cashed in on a 50-yard run on their second possession. The Eagles tallied a seven-yard touchdown run on their first possession.

The second quarter was the most exciting 12 minutes of the evening. Both teams swapped touchdowns, with Rosewood getting the better end of the deal after scoring three times.

The Trojans had scored their third touchdown of the evening to go up 21-20 and had left the Eagles just a scant 43 seconds to mount a reply before the half.

The Eagle offense did just that.

The kick return placed the ball at midfield, and two completions later the Eagles were in the end zone with a 36-yard strike from Langston to Dustin Overman. The score put the Eagles ahead for good 28-20 after a two-point conversion.

The second half was a different ball game from the first.

The half opened with three unanswered Rosewood touchdowns and the Eagle defense shut down the Trojan offense. Rosewood allowed only six yards of total offense for the entire third quarter and took the ball away twice with a fumble recovery and an interception by Jeremy Reusch.

The fourth quarter saw mostly clean-up action as the Eagle reserves got in a lot of quality minutes for the future.

The Trojans posted the final score of the game on a five-yard run with just 30 seconds left in the game.

"An excellent ball game all the way around," said head coach Daniel Barrow. "We still have some things to work on and get better at. Our containment players on defense still have some work to do, but a great game tonight for Rosewood football. We made our adjustments and executed well.

"Jones Senior came in here well prepared and executed some great plays on the field. They should do well this year."

Rosewood travels to C.B. Aycock next Friday.

Jones Senior 6 14 0 8 -- 28

Rosewood 6 23 22 0 -- 51

First quarter

R -- Langston 7 run (kick failed) 9:34

J -- Bryant 50 run (run failed) 8:04

Second quarter

R -- Bennett 7 run (Hietpas kick) 10:56

J -- Ingram 71 run (Legister run) 6:49

R -- Bennett 69 run (Langston run) 6:20

J -- Ingram 9 run (run failed), 0:43

R -- Overman 36 pass from Langston (Butler run) 0:17

Third quarter

R -- Butler 29 pass from Langston (Butler run) 11:21

R -- Bennett 9 run (Hietpas kick) 10:09

Fourth quarter

J -- Barfield 5 run (Dove run) 0:30

Jones Sr. Rosewood

First downs 12 18

Rushes-yds 40-297 27-256

Passing yds 36 173

Total yards 333 429

Att.-Comp.-Int. 14-4-1 11-6-0

Fumbles-lost 2-2 3-0

Punts-avg 5-26 5-30

Penalties-yds 8-52 10-106

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING -- Rosewood -- Bennett 7-119, 3 TD; Butler 3-36; Horton 3-32; Barnett 1-29; Langston 3-28, TD; Ellis 5-11; Gibson 1-2; Huerta 1-1; Jones 1-0; Holmes 1-(-2). Jones Senior -- Ingram 8-115, 2 TDs; Bryant 3-62, TD; Dove 12-48; Barfield 6-41, TD; Legister 9-31; Bryant 2-11.

PASSING -- Rosewood -- Langston 5-10-0 134, 2 TDs; Ellis 1-1-0 39, TD. Jones Senior -- Ingram 4-14-1 36.

RECEIVING -- Rosewood -- Overman 3-84, TD; Butler 2-68, 2 TDs; Grey 1-21. Jones Senior -- Hall 1-23; R. Bryant 1-16; J. Bryant 1-(-3).