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Redskins fall to East Laurens
BCEL 1 2020
Bryan County High School defenders swarm to the ball during the third quarter of the Redskins' 33-0 loss to East Laurens in a nonregion game Friday, Sept. 18, 2020, in Pembroke. - photo by Jeff Whitten

Bryan County High School fell 33-0 to East Laurens in a nonregion football game Friday night in Pembroke. 
The Redskins fell behind 13-0 early, and trailed 20-0 at halftime on a night when wet conditions made both the field and the football slippery. 
Miscues ranging from penalties to turnovers cost BCHS  opportunities and kept Redskin defenders on the field for much of the game. 

The Redskins managed just two yards total offense the entire game, and ran only nine plays in the first half. 

"Not making excuses, but we looked like ninth graders in these kind of conditions with the field and the ball tonight," first-year Redskins' coach Cherard Freeman said. "What we're asking of these kids,  most of them not having played in these conditions before, is tough."

The most exciting play of the game for the Redskins came when Flannel returned a kickoff 59 yards to the East Laurens 21-yard line in the third quarter. A personal foul gave Bryan County a first down at the Falcons 10 but it fumbled the ball away on first down.

It was one of six fumbles in the game for the Redskins. East Laurens had problems, too, as it fumbled three times and had bad snaps on two extra points and one field goal attempt.

While nearly half the Redskins' roster is made up of freshmen, the Falcons were senior heavy up front and at quarterback.  That experience and time in the weightroom showed, Freeman said. 

"East Laurens is a good football team," he said. "They were bigger and stronger than us up front and they just outplayed us, hats off to them."

Down 33-0, the Redskins had a late opportunity to score inside the Falcons' 20 with less than a minute to play, but ran out of time. 

"We're not going to be a quitting football team," Freeman said. "It's going to pay off in the future. We're going to keep pushing. I told our guys in the locker room, these are the growing pains we have to go through."

There were positives.

 "From game one to game two, you could tell the effort was going to be there and the focus would be there, and I thought the offensive line played better than they did last week on assignments. It's a stepping stone. Last week we didn't get to our assignments, this week we got to our assignments now we've got to learn to stay on assignments. We'll keep working f." 

Freshman Jacari Carney had 10 yards rushing to lead Bryan County which will have will have another difficult assignment when it plays at Class AAA Southeast Bulloch (1-1) next Friday night.

The loss dropped BCHS to 0-2. East Laurens improved to 1-1. 


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