By Zach Buckley
Sylva-Bay finds itself in unfamiliar territory with zero losses. There many teams undefeated so far, but the Saints have matched the total wins of 2017. They had not won a game until week six last year. Head coach Terry Underwood is orchestrating one heck of a turnaround, but he the season is young. “I know it’s a big rivalry (Newton County Academy) with the proximity of the schools. I think it’s another huge stepping stone for our program, and I’m very proud of our kids,” said Underwood.
The Saints jumped on the board early. Ty Crosby took the opening kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown. Phillip Anderson, known as a run-first quarterback, started the SBA air attack early. He connected with junior River Thomas for two long touchdowns in the first quarter for 67 and 52 yards.
Newton punched their way on the board with their ground-and-pound style of football early in the second quarter, and it looked as if they were starting to dictate the pace of the game. Less than two minutes later Anderson threw a short pass to BJ Magee-Black. With some nifty moves and 67 yards later, Magee-Black made his way to the paydirt to make the score 28-6 with 8:48 left in the first half.
Newton dialed up Ol’ Mo-mentum and stuffed Sylva-Bay on their own goal-line for safety. The Generals took command of the game by pounding their way back within two touchdowns before the half with a 28-14 score.
The Saints took a nice lead into the locker room, but it is safe to say, that Underwood did not sing nursery rhymes to his young Saints. “I challenged our kids at halftime. I was quite upset with them. We played just about an error-less first quarter. The second quarter they started grinding us out, and we got tired and wasn’t playing as hard. I challenged our defense at halftime. I challenged our whole football team,” said Underwood.
Whatever was said in that locker-room must have lit a fire in the Saints defense. Defensive end Cambell Graves took a bobbled snap from the Newton punter, scooped, and scored on a 55-yd run. With a 34-14 lead, the Generals abandoned their ground attack, and the Saints dealt major damage. Thomas returned an interception deep into Newton territory leading to his third touchdown reception from Anderson. With 1:07 left in the third quarter, the Saints’ defender Cade Blackwell made his presence known with a pick-six touchdown for 57 yards.
That would end all scoring giving the Saints a 46-14 victory over Newton County Academy. “I challenged our kids to establish themselves in the first five minutes of the third quarter. We got some big turnovers. The kicking game was outstanding tonight. Offensively, I thought we pitch and caught the ball well. In the second half, we were a different team. We have to learn not to rest when we get up. This is the first time we’ve had that (the lead). We’ve come back in our two previous games to win. In this game, I thought we rested in the second quarter. But in the third and fourth quarter we got after it,” Underwood commented.
Sylva-Bay cannot rest next week; they face a talented Brookhaven Academy on the road. Underwood commented on the Saints’ next challenge, “Everything I know about Brookhaven is they are an excellent football team. They will pitch and catch it as good as anyone we’ve seen. I know they’ll be really good. We lost a heartbreaker to them last year. It should be a good football game this year and a tough challenge.”
