Victory denied, New Kent finishes season at 0-10

Running back Terrance Ward bounces to the outside on the way to the end zone for New Kent’s first half touchdown.

Alan Chamberlain photo

Three second half Bruton touchdowns wiped out a New Kent halftime lead, propelling the visiting Panthers to a 21-6 Bay Rivers District football win, thus denying the Trojans a victory for the season.

New Kent finished 0-10 for the first time in school history although the 1999 team was forced to forfeit its entire season due to an ineligible player.

“This is pretty disappointing,” said New Kent coach Dan Rounds after the Nov. 2 loss. “We came into this season looking at five or six wins. We thought we’d be in the mix for the Division 3 playoffs.

“But our first three games were real tough as we had some inexperienced, young guys and we were trying to see what worked. And then the injuries started,” he said. “We brought up eight guys from JV, and they’ve been playing in every game since the JV season was over.

“Our offensive line was our strength, but with injuries, we had only two of those guys at the end of the season,” he added. “We had a lot of guys we started with that didn’t finish.”

The Bruton finale followed almost the same script the Trojans have operated under since the season began — competitive in the first half but then allowing mistakes to sabotage the second.

New Kent drove into the red zone on four occasions in the first half, but came away with points only once. Terrance Ward’s six-yard touchdown run, however, staked the Trojans to a 6-0 halftime lead.

After the break, the Panthers evened the score on their first possession and took the lead at 14-6 nearing the fourth quarter’s midpoint. New Kent answered the Panthers’ go-ahead TD with an 11-play march that reached the Bruton 10 yard line with less than three minutes to play. But the effort to tie ended on Daniel Jones’ interception of a Luke Mechling pass at the three. Jones returned the ball 85 yards to set up Bruton’s final TD.

“We’ve been living on that line all year where we’re on the brink of doing it but not getting it done,” said Rounds. “Some of it is maturity and some of it is people trying to make plays in desperation to win games and ending up forcing things.

“I told our 12 seniors that they’re a great group of people and they’ll be a success at whatever they do,” he said. “This season is not an indicator of them as far as being a success.”

Bruton————        0      0      6      15    ——    21

New Kent——–        0      6       0       0    ——      6

2nd Quarter

New Kent (1:19)- Ward 9 yard run (kick fail) 6-0

3rd Quarter

Bruton (9:12)- Johnson 3 yard run (kick fail) 6-6

4th Quarter

Bruton (7:58)- Johnson 2 yard run (Doucet run) 14-6

Bruton (1:55)- Johnson 6 yard run (McReynolds kick) 21-6

Rushing (attempts/yards)

Bruton- Johnson 20/102, Rice 12/77, Doucet 11/85, Wallace 4/27, Williams 1/6, Wade 1/3, Kissoon 1/1.

NK- Ward 12/63, Chalmers 10/46, Mechling 2/-11, Dunn 1/3, Barnes 1/2.

Passing (completions/attempts/yards)

Bruton- Wallace 0/5/0, 1 Int.; Uvodich 1/1/8.

NK- Mechling 11/21/159, 1 Int.; Karaffa 1/1/64; Hill-Sanders 0/1/0.

Receiving (receptions/yards)

Bruton- Doucet 1/8.

NK- Dunn 4/75, C. Lee 3/96, Braxton 2/27, Karaffa 1/12, Robinson 1/7, Chalmers 1/6.

QB sacks

Bruton- Lamb.

Interceptions

Bruton- Jones.

NK- Vick.

Fumble recoveries

Bruton- Chance.

NK- Joseph Dixon, Vick.