Stubborn Averett shuts down Methodist

By Jason Wolf

Published: October 11, 2008

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — A hush falls over the crowd as an ambulance drives onto the field and players from both teams drop to their knees to pray.

Medical personnel remove a stretcher from the back as an Averett University trainer holds his hand on Cameron Taylor’s neck. The senior safety, knocked out after colliding with a teammate, lays face down and motionless on the turf for most of a 15-minute delay.

When he comes to, he’s defiant.

“They wanted to put him on the stretcher and he said, ‘No, I am not going on the stretcher. I’m walking off this field…’” Averett coach Mike Dunlevy said. “I was over there fighting with him and he said, ‘I’ll sign any waiver I got to sign, but I’m walking off. My teammates are not going to see me get carried off on a stretcher. That’s not happening.’”

Taylor was helped, but he walked off the field. His Averett teammates, who for the second straight week took an early lead but allowed a touchdown in the final minute of the first half and on their opponents’ first drive after the break, likewise picked themselves up when the situation appeared bleak and walked off with a 31-17 victory against Methodist University on Saturday afternoon at Monarch Stadium.

Averett saw a three-score lead cut to 17-14 – but never trailed – controlled the ball for 16 minutes longer than Methodist (1-4, 0-2) and intercepted Monarchs quarterback Erik Teague four times on the way to its first USA South Conference win since clinching the league championship in the final game of the 2006 season.

“It was coverages and missed assignments. We know what they were and we practiced them, but they didn’t execute them,” Methodist coach Jim Sypult said, disgusted at his team’s mistakes. “Who takes full responsibility for that? Well, I do. My grade’s an F. An F-minus today. We didn’t get it done.”

Averett (2-3, 1-1) senior linebacker Clyde Robinson snatched two of Teague’s three first-half interceptions and fullback Brian Daniels scored twice, plowing in from the 1 in both the first and second quarters as the Cougars built a 17-0 lead. Both first-half touchdown drives featured short fourth-down conversions and Daniels’ second score capped an 18-play, 81-yard drive that chewed nearly nine minutes.

“To anybody that don’t believe in us or don’t think we’re a force to be reckoned with, that should show them right there,” Daniels said. “We’re persistent with this thing now. We’re going all the way, trying to be champions, trying to get a ring, trying to win the conference. We’ve got five more.”

But much like the previous week’s conference loss to Ferrum, the Cougars let down after taking an early lead and allowed their opponent to score in the final minute of the half. Kerrick Brown blocked an Averett punt near the Cougars 40-yard line, Methodist’s John Green III recovered and rumbled about 20 yards before fumbling himself, and the ball was ultimately rewarded to the Monarchs when Jody Balaam escaped from the pile with the football.

Methodist freshman Reggie Scales scored four plays later on a 5-yard run around right tackle to chop the Monarchs’ deficit to 10 with 23 seconds remaining in the half, and the teams entered intermission with Averett leading 17-7.

Methodist zipped 50 yards in three minutes on its first possession of the third quarter to pull within 17-14 when Devin Goodman grabbed an 8-yard touchdown pass from Teague, and a familiar feeling began to take hold on the Averett sideline. The Cougars had seen this before.

“I wasn’t too worried about it,” Robinson said, “just because our offense has stepped up and they really had their stuff together this week.”

Dunlevy, who preached to his players all week about the importance of playing a full 60 minutes, was a little more forthcoming.

“Yeah, I was a little bit worried about that,” the coach said.

Averett answered on its very next possession, however, with a 7-yard score by running back Dontavious Watson finishing a drive that featured the junior’s 34-yard catch and run.

Sophomore quarterback Philip Kwiatkowski, who returned from a leg injury that kept him sidelined two weeks, completed 16-of-24 passes for 165 yards and a touchdown. That score, a 24-yard strike to Anthony Squillini that the senior used an over-the-shoulder catch to pull down, accounted for the final tally.

Methodist appeared to once again cut its deficit to a single score shortly after Taylor’s ordeal, but had a touchdown called back because of a chop block
penalty with about six minutes remaining. The call proved to be a backbreaker for the Monarchs.

“All of us had the mentality that we were going to win this game, regardless, because we need this game,” Daniels said.

That stubborn mentality, embodied by Taylor, paid off for the Cougars.