FORT BENNING, Ga., (Nov. 5, 2014) -- The 11- to 13-year-old division team Eastway Cherokees battled and defeated the Fort Benning Bengals Team Orange 14-6.
The Columbus Youth Football League teams played Nov. 1 at French Field.
The two teams played a close game in the first half with no one scoring in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Bengals took the lead 6-0 over the Cherokees when quarterback Kywan Woods led his team on a 56-yard drive for their first and only touchdown of the game. With two timeouts taken during the Bengals' possession, Kywan scored on a 5-yard touchdown run, followed by an unsuccessful one-point conversion.
Bengals head coach Lee Obie said the timeouts were taken to end team bickering.
"If you bicker on the field, it will come out in the game, which was shown today," he said.
Obie said the wind played as a major factor in the game and shut down several plays not only with their passing game, but with their kicking too.
"We missed the field goal because the wind actually brought the ball up in the air instead of through," he said.
The Cherokees tied the game 6-6 on their next possession with 1:47 remaining in the half. Cherokee Daquan Mellion added their points with a 5-yard touchdown run.
In the second half, Obie said the Bengals adjusted their rush to offset the Cherokees' running game.
"We more or less went to a full blitz to keep the guys in a pocket," he said. "We knew they weren't passing either because of the weather."
The Bengals strategy paid off in the third quarter maintaining the tie, but set them back in the fourth quarter.
With 5:51 left in the game, the Cherokees put together an 8-play, 44-yard drive capped off by a 20-yard touchdown run by Daquan, which was set up by a Ronald Lee fumble recovery, making the final score 14-6.
Obie said Daquan outrunning the corners is what led the Cherokees to their last touchdown.
"I think we did satisfactory," he said. "We could have done much better. (The players) wore their heart on their sleeves today instead of putting it into the field. We (as a team) were looking for calls that shouldn't have been there. We should have played as a team instead of worrying about that the refs were calling. I think that's what kind of threw us off."
Obie said the Cherokees played well as a team.
He said his team should have played better than the Cherokees because he knows what they are capable of.
Obie said his team shined in tackling, but the running and passing wasn't able to get off like he wanted it to.
"There (was) a lot of (tackling) that should have been further back in the field, but I think we did some wonderful tackling as far as the defense went," he said.
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