South Aiken football stays perfect with shut out over Gilbert on a rainy Friday night
· Yahoo Sports
SOUTH AIKEN 37, GILBERT 0
Not even the rain could cool down the T-Breds on Friday night as they defeated Gilbert with ease to stay undefeated this season.
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While the game didn’t kick off until almost two hours past the original start time, South Aiken wasted no time putting 14 points on the board in the opening minutes. Defensive back BJ Johnson was the first to find the end zone, igniting the rest of the team on the sideline.
An interception from Dez Jackson that resulted in another touchdown on the very next play from wide receiver Kyson McLeod only continued to set the tone. Head coach Chris Hamilton said control was the key to commanding the field and putting the Indians on their back foot.
“It helps when you're at home, of course,” he said. “And I think we did a good job of just, like I said, controlling what we can control. And they did it. We did a good job of coming out and being explosive and then keeping our foot on the gas, which is good.”
Gilbert had no response as South Aiken kept adding points to the board in different ways, scoring at least once in all four quarters at the hands of five different players. While McLeod has stood out so far on the field this year, breaking several records in the first few weeks of the fall, the T-Breds have weapons all over for quarterback Tommy Burns III to target.
A flurry of fouls did dampen the T-Breds' energy some in the second quarter, but running back Drelyn Brown was still able to add another seven points for a 21-0 lead going into a rainy halftime.
South Aiken’s versatility on the field so far has been a testament to how talented the veteran group of players is in all three phases of the game, ultimately resulting in the team’s explosive start to the season.
“Great players make really good coaches,” Hamilton said. “So, it helps me out; it helps us out as a coaching staff to have really good players that make us look really good. So, my best teams have always had really good players on them.”
There were opportunities throughout the second half for Gilbert to take some of control back, but all of them fizzled out at the hands of South Aiken’s defense. Wide receiver Dion Simpkins got his time to shine in the third following a safety to put the T-Breds firmly in the driver’s seat going into the final quarter.
Running back Kaelab Oberry was all over the field all night long, extending drives and putting them in scoring position on kickoff returns, but didn’t find the end zone for the first time until the fourth to give them a final 37-0 lead.
Special teams weren’t left out either, as Knox Young made every one of his point-after attempts throughout the night.
“That's a good, good team,” Hamilton said. “We did a really good job tonight of controlling what we can control. Can't control the weather, contrary to popular belief, I can't control it, so hey, let's just go and control what we can control. Come out here, great effort by our guys. Great defensive effort. I told the guys we were handing out decals today. I told the defense, I said, ‘Hey, there was no defensive decals for team goal stuff,’ and because Coach Corley sets the standard so high. And till last week, they didn't have any goals, but this week I'm sure they got a couple. But that was a good job by our defense and a great job by our offense of executing.”
The energy is starting to build at the stomping grounds as the team continues to pick up steam well into the fall. Only one more game against Lugoff-Elgin stands between South Aiken and the first region matchup of the season against Fox Creek.
For Hamilton, reaching this level has been inevitable with the way they’ve been developing this roster for the past several years, and the only thing to do now is to continue building up what they’ve started. He knows the region isn’t any easier this year and that the Demons aren’t a team to overlook on their way to the main part of the schedule.
“Just keep plugging away,” he said. “I mean, we always believe in what we do, and sometimes things are going really good. We got really good players this year that have been building up for the past few years. They're finally coming along.”