Berry Academy turns tide with defense
There wasn’t a mistake Berry Academy couldn’t take advantage of.
The Cardinals (3-1) turned opportunistic in the third quarter of their 52-44 nonconference win against West Charlotte Friday, scoring a safety and forcing two turnovers over a four-minute span to flip a 22-22 tie into a 23-point gap.
“That was it,” Cardinals coach Andrew Howard said. “We kept preaching let’s keep going, let’s not take our foot off the gas.”
Berry swung the momentum when by forcing a safety at 6:45 and converting the ensuing possession into Chris Washington’s 6-yard scoring run for a 31-22 advantage at 4:13.
Akeem McIntyre’s interception return to West Charlotte’s 35 set up another Washington 6-yard scamper around left end put the Cardinals up 38-22 and Jordon Rowe’s fumble recovery in Lions territory resulted in a 10-yard strike from Brian Digsby (21-of-29, 246 yards, 4 TDs) to Kusegi Cureton (7 catches, 116 yards) for an exclamation point on the outburst.
“Those last few minutes of the game when we gave up 14 points, we tried to put some young guys in for whatever reason they were nervous, scared, they turned the ball over and put our defense in a pickle, but I was glad we were able to hold them,” Howard said.
The first half was an offensive stalemate that went 22-22 at the break. Both sides moved the ball through the air, with West Charlotte Izayah Cole completing 11-of-15 passes for 197 yards and a pair of touchdowns against Digsby’s 19-of-24 for 230 yards and a couple of scores for Berry Academy.
West Charlotte rallied to within eight points on Xavier McCoy’s third touchdown reception, an 8-yarder from Cole with 51 seconds left, but it wasn’t enough.
“I knew they played on Monday and probably took the day off on Tuesday, so we were getting days in while they were in game mode, then relaxing then getting back into game mode,” Howard said. “I said let’s speed the game up and tire them out and in the third and fourth quarter it showed.”
The Cardinals took the initiative early, grabbing a 15-7 advantage on Digsby’s 20-yard toss to Malik Brown and a 52-yarder to Cureton in the first quarter. West Charlotte came alive in the second when Cole hit several long pass plays, especially to Xavier McCoy, who snared two for 77 yards and a touchdown. Cole’s 17-yard strike to Jacory Reaves tied the game 1:27 before the break. Cureton caught six passes for 106 yards in the half while West Charlotte tailback Quintin Mickerson rushed for 106 yards on 10 carries.
“West Charlotte is a good team,” Howard said. “They’re a very athletic team, so anyone in their conference that’s sleeping on them is going to be in for a rude awakening.”
Quote: “Once we got them out of the box and thought we were a passing team, we decided to run the ball.” – Berry Academy coach Andrew Howard.
Records: Berry Academy is 3-1 and 0-0 in the SoMeck 4A; West Charlotte is 1-4 and 0-0 in the MECKA 4A.
Worth Mentioning: Chris Washington ran for 98 yards on 11 carries for Berry Academy.
What’s next: Berry Academy is at Charlotte Catholic in the SoMeck 4A opener. West Charlotte hosts Mallard Creek in a MECKA 4A game.
This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 11:18 PM with the headline "Berry Academy turns tide with defense."