DARIEN — The McIntosh County Academy Buccaneers turned three turnovers into pivotal scores Friday night.
The Bucs ran back two interceptions for touchdowns and turned a fumble recovery into a touchdown drive, sailing past the Tigers 40-13.
The Bucs delivered a back-breaking score off a turnover on the final play of the first half. The Tigers reached the Buccaneers 7-yard line in the waning seconds of the half when Christopher Garrett’s pass to Bryant Thomas was just out of his reach. But it wound up in the hands of MCA’s Demonte Stokes, who raced 97 yards for a touchdown as the half ended, putting the Bucs ahead 20-7.
It was Stokes’ second pick-six of the game. His first, a 58-yard return of a pass that deflected off a Tigers receiver hands, helped put MCA ahead 7-6.
Marquan Houston’s 1-yard run late in the third quarter brought BI to within 27-13.
The Tigers appeared to catch a break on a bad punt snap for MCA on its next possession. However, the Bucs scooped up an errant lateral to Tyus Jones, setting up Nehemiah West’s 10-yard touchdown run.
Laderrious West had a 41-yard touchdown run for MCA’s final score of the game.
Bradwell got on the board first. Garrett hit Thomas for a 42-yard gain on third down, and connected with Thomas on an 8-yard score on the next play.
Stokes’ 3-yard run with 4:11 to go pushed the Bucs’ lead to 14-6.
The Tigers defense came up with three straight stops in the second quarter, and two MCA possessions started in Tigers’ territory. The Bucs started on their 45 and got to the Tigers 13 before Bradwell forced a fumble. The Tigers also twice held on fourth downs on drives that started at their 30 and 36.
Deondray Bacon capped an 11-play drive to open the third quarter with a 9-yard touchdown run.
The Bucs ran for 269 yards, 175 coming in the second half. They only attempted one pass in the second half, which was nullified by a penalty. Madi McMahan was 4-of-6 on extra point attempts.
Bradwell amassed 226 yards of total offense.
Bradwell, now 0-5, is off next week and will host Coffee on Oct. 7 in the Region 1-AAAAA opener.
