The Long County High School football team dropped its fifth straight game Friday, losing 32-7 to Pierce County High School.
Though the score was lopsided, the Blue Tide played one of their best games of the year, keeping it close through three quarters of play.
The Ludowici team scored its lone touchdown off a Jacob Turner pass to David Stewart early in the first quarter. In the first half the Long County offense moved the ball well and moved into scoring position two other times, but was unable to put more points on the board.
"We probably played as good a ball game as we have all year," head coach Kyle Wilson said. "We sure played much better than we have in a while. We had two other opportunities to score in the first half, but we just didn’t take advantage of those opportunities."
With the score 10-7 late in the third period, the Bears rattled off 22 unanswered points to win the game.
Wilson’s team was surprised by the ambush, but he has an idea of what happened. "Well, we moved the ball well in the first half, only having one three and out. But in the second half, I think we had the ball four times, and of those three possessions, three times we went three and out," he said. "Also in the second half they went predominately with the power-I and pounded the ball on us. We didn’t match up with them well physically."Despite the loss, Wilson praised his team’s effort and complimented four players’ performances.
"On offense, (Brandon) Hope ran the ball extremely well and Jacob (Turner) also played well. On the defense, we had Marcus (Williams) and Jeffrey (Hall) play their best games in a while, too," the coach said.
The loss drops the Blue Tide’s overall record to 1-5. They face another tough opponent Friday in the Brantley County Herons. The game is in Ludowici, where Long County will celebrate homecoming.
For a preview of the homecoming game, see Friday’s Coastal Courier.