Donelson Christian Academy took advantage of senior quarterback Bradford Gaines’ career night to come away with a 52-20 victory over White House Heritage Friday night.
The Wildcats took a 28-14 lead into halftime, but DCA head coach Paul Wade thought his team still lacked some execution.
“Except for just a few plays in the first half, we really did not execute very well,” Wade said. “It may have looked like it by the score, but it was just a few plays that we did. The third quarter, we challenged them at halftime to just come out and execute what we worked on.”
After Heritage’s Taye Francis cut the lead to eight with a 43-yard touchdown run on the opening drive of the third quarter, the Wildcats scored the final 24 points of the game.
Heritage sold out to stop the run, leaving space behind the defenders. Bradford Gaines was able to find his receivers over the top throughout the game. He went 7-for-10 for 228 passing yards with four touchdowns, including three of over 40 yards.
“It was probably (Gaines’) best outing as a Wildcat,” Wade said. “They were trying to defend the run. I feel like we’ve run the ball very effectively in the last three weeks, and they were trying to stop the run.
“Trying to put two safeties, four DBs within eight yards of the line of scrimmage, you better be able to get the ball over the top… They were all play-action passes, and the kids did a great job of executing.”
One trend that has grown over the past few years in the high school game is ultimately deciding what play to run at the line of scrimmage after seeing the defense. Wade uses it with his team, and it paid dividends Friday night, knowing when the play-action would be open.
“They’re called ‘check-with-me’s,” Wade said. “Everybody does them at every level. Sometimes we call a play; sometimes we just call a formation. Sometimes we call a play and change the whole thing.
“I’m a run-first guy, have been my entire career all the years I’ve called plays… You have to be able to look at the defense and see what they’re giving you, and hopefully we execute it.”
Gaines said he is fine operating a run-heavy offense, but given the chance to fling the ball down the field, he will take it every time.
“I’m fine with being a game manager and running the ball 20 million times a day, throwing six passes, but to throw as many as I did, that’s a blast,” Gaines said.
The Wildcats were still dangerous on the ground, rushing for 253 yards on 34 attempts. Ashton Jones totaled 157 yards and a touchdown.
DCA was able to move the ball the entire game and had to face a potent Heritage rushing attack. Wade wanted to give his team a look at a tough, physical opponent before the playoffs.
“We scrimmaged them a couple of years ago, and physically they beat us up,” Wade said. “To be honest, getting ready for the playoffs last year, we had not had that. I wanted to make sure we had a couple of games within our (regular season) schedule that prepared us physically for the playoffs.”
The Patriots ran the ball 48 times for 259 yards but completed none of their five pass attempts. Malakhai Illaramendi ran for 118 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries.
Heritage has now lost two games in a row after starting the season with two wins. Head coach Stetson Dickerson said they are not where they want to be, but his team is on the right track.
“From last week to this week, we took some steps forward,” Dickerson said. “We’ve got to keep taking steps forward. This game is for tough people, and we weren’t as tough as we need to be tonight.
“Of course, we scheduled them when we knew it was going to be a challenge. They’ve got a heck of a football team. We didn’t play four quarters as tough as we really needed to.”
Both teams open their region schedules next Friday. DCA will travel to Columbia Academy, and Heritage will host Sycamore.
Box Score | 1Q | 2Q | 3Q | 4Q | F |
DCA | 7 | 21 | 7 | 17 | 52 |
WH Heritage | 7 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 20 |
Scoring Plays
1Q DCA – Bradford Gaines 41-yard touchdown pass to Dayton Sneed. (PAT good)
1Q WHH – Malakhai Illaramendi three-yard rushing touchdown. (PAT good)
2Q DCA – Brady Russell six-yard rushing touchdown. (PAT good)
2Q DCA – Bradford Gaines 58-yard touchdown pass to Nathan Magalei. (PAT good)
2Q WHH – Damian Dobak two-yard rushing touchdown. (PAT good)
2Q DCA – Bradford Gaines eight-yard touchdown pass to Nathan Magalei. (PAT good)
3Q WHH – Taye Francis 43-yard rushing touchdown. (PAT failed)
3Q DCA – Ashton Jones 19-yard rushing touchdown. (PAT good)
4Q DCA – Bradford Gaines 51-yard touchdown pass to Dayton Sneed. (PAT good)
4Q DCA – Wesley Gober 15-yard touchdown run. (PAT good)
4Q DCA – Braden Ducharme 38-yard field goal.
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