Golden Falcons prevail in Brooks' coaching debut

By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on August 24, 2013 11:26 PM

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astevens@newsargus.com

PIKEVILLE -- Charles B. Aycock continued to leave the door open for Rosewood all night.

The Eagles were more than happy to let themselves back in the ballgame.

Rosewood rallied to tie the game at 21-21 with nine minutes to play before the Golden Falcons pulled away for a 35-21 victory at Hardy Talton Stadium on Friday evening.

C.B. Aycock squandered multiple chances to put the game away. The Golden Falcons dropped three passes in the end zone, were stopped on the goal line in the fourth quarter and missed a field goal.

The Eagles used a 54-yard touchdown run from quarterback Jacob Sasser and Jamari McGown's 97-yard score to tie the game at 21-21. McGown ended the night with 149 yards on just six carries.

"We kind of played sloppy at the beginning and kind of fought through it," Rosewood head coach Robert Britt said. "We saw tonight that we had a lot of fight. We were down a couple of scores and came back to tie it, and then we eased up and we're just not good enough to ease up."

Touchdown runs from Neil Clark and Tazmont Groves in the final 7 1/2 minutes finally sealed win in Steve Brooks' debut as Aycock's head football coach.

"It's a testament to the kids and the coaches," Brooks said. "They just came out and survived. We talked about finishing the race tonight and they finished for sure. That's senior leadership on the front line and in the backfield to put the ball in Neil's hands and put the ball in Taz's hands, and they made great things happen."

Aycock quarterback T.J. Morrow didn't disappoint in his first career varsity start. The transfer from California was 10 for 16 passing for 178 yards and two touchdowns. Morrow also rushed 19 times for 153 yards and a score.

The junior consistently made good decisions both in the passing and option games and routinely burned the Eagles' defense with his ability to run when the play broke down.

Morrow finished with 331 of the Golden Falcons' 530 yards of offense. Clark added 109 yards on 16 carries.

"I got into a rhythm pretty quick," Morrow said. "I just stay calm, that's my key. If I have to check it down to my running back that's what I do. I'm just comfortable with the offense. I always tell myself to stay calm and don't get too jumpy because that's where the bad decisions come from."

Aycock (1-0) took the game's opening possession and pieced together a methodical 10-play drive that ended in Morrow's 6-yard touchdown run. With fewer than two minutes remaining in the first quarter the game was delayed by lightning for 87 minutes.

When play resumed, Morrow's 41-yard run set up his 10-yard touchdown pass to Michael Eutsey early in the second quarter to push the Golden Falcons' lead to 14-0.

Rosewood responded with its best drive of the first half and capped it with Sasser's 43-yard touchdown pass to Mike Woodard.

Aycock continued its first-half offensive success on its next possession. Clark hauled in a screen pass from Morrow and raced 58 yards to the end zone and Aycock led 21-7 at the half.

The two teams combined for 21 penalties for 150 yards.