Bulldogs Were Off to the Races

Liberty Champs Secure No. 1 Seed

By Paul Tenorio

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Riding a seven-game winning streak in which it had outscored opponents, 294-40, No. 19 Stone Bridge had trailed just once since Sept. 8 before Friday night's game at W.T. Woodson.

But after Woodson's Paul Gaski intercepted a pass and returned it to the Bulldogs' 17-yard line, quarterback Gabe Thomas scored on a 14-yard run three plays later, and Stone Bridge found itself behind late in the first quarter.

No matter. It took just one offensive play for the Bulldogs to remedy that situation. Running back Kareem Alexander broke off a 62-yard rushing touchdown — his first of three on the night — and the Bulldogs never trailed again, earning the Liberty District championship title with a 45-7 victory. The win secures Stone Bridge the No. 1 seed in the regional tournament that begins next week.

"Winning this game is a great feeling," Alexander said. "We've got one championship, and now we've got two more to go."

After Alexander's long run tied the score, Stone Bridge forced a fumble. The team needed just two plays to capitalize, with Virginia Tech-bound Jeron Gouveia criss-crossing the field for a 52-yard score to give the Bulldogs the lead.

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Stone Bridge Defeats Woodson

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The Stone Bridge football team gets pumped up before its game against W. T. Woodson. (Tracy A. Woodward)

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Stone Bridge's No. 11 Ryan Moody goes in for the touchdown, beating Woodson's Colin Dempsey in the second quarter with 7:34 on the clock. (Tracy A. Woodward)

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Stone Bridge Head Coach Mickey Thompson talks with Nate Ingersoll during the game against W.T. Woodson. (Tracy A. Woodward)

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Stone Bridge's No. 20 Daniel Allen is on his way to score a touchdown in the third quarter with 10:31 on the clock. (Tracy A. Woodward)

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Stone Bridge High School cheerleaders pump up the crowd during the game. (Tracy A. Woodward)

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Stone Bridge's No. 77 Danny Parrotte and No. 11 Ryan Moody create a big hole for No. 2 Kareem Alexander in the first quarter with 5:24 on the clock. (Tracy A. Woodward)

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Stone Bridge's No. 3 Jeron Gouveia breaks Woodson's Jimmy Williamson's tackle in the second quarter with 8:04 on the clock. (Tracy A. Woodward)

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Stone Bridge's No.3 Jeron Gouveia powers through W.T. Woodson's defense in the second quarter with about seven minutes on the clock. (Tracy A. Woodward)

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Another fumble led to a 27-yard field goal by Ronnie Shaban, and an onside kick gave the Bulldogs the ball again. Patrick Thompson found Ryan Moody on a 58-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 24-7 at the half.

Stone Bridge wasted no time in the second half as Daniel Allen ran for a 39-yard touchdown on the Bulldogs' first possession. Alexander scored on a 26-yard run on the team's second possession to make it 38-7 with 8 minutes 9 seconds left in the third quarter.

"We were really good in our base stuff, in our single-wing stuff," Stone Bridge Coach Mickey Thompson said. "Not so much in our spread stuff, and we've been better in our spread stuff recently, so it's nice to see we can go either way. But all of the single-wing stuff was good today, so that's why we had so many big runs."

Alexander ended the scoring with his third touchdown of the game from eight yards out early in the fourth quarter. The three touchdowns gave Alexander 11 scores this season.

"You hear Jeron, Jeron, Jeron, but Kareem's a great back in his own right," Thompson said. "Kareem breaks a lot of tackles, and he might not have the reads that Jeron has, but he's got the power that Jeron doesn't have. He just runs over people a lot of times."

After the game, Alexander and the coach took little time to bask in the district championship win before touching on what the team needed to do to improve.

Thompson pointed to the defensive play and some struggles in the spread offense. But with eight straight wins that came in such convincing fashion, Thompson couldn't hide the excitement his team felt.

"We could have played better, we struggled on some things," Thompson said before a big smile spread across his face.

Tagged: high school sports

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