Florence haults Briarwood

Published 2:20 am Saturday, October 25, 2008

Briarwood’s run of balanced, lopsided wins came to an end Friday, as Florence handed the Lions their second loss, 27-7, at home.

After a scoreless first quarter, Florence took advantage of a failed fourth-down pass by Briarwood’s Paul Barber late in the first quarter and opened the second quarter with a nine-play, 71-yard touchdown drive. The Falcons’ scored again on a 45-yard pass from Bryce Curtis to Damien Simmons with 1:19 to go in the half to take a 14-0 lead into the break.

Briarwood’s only touchdown came with 8:48 to play in the third quarter when Walker May recovered a fumble and took it 41 yards for a touchdown. Wilson Whorton’s kick was good to cut the lead in half, 14-7.

“That was a timely great play, but we weren’t good enough to build from it,” Briarwood head coach Fred Yancey said.

Briarwood could not do anything on offense, collecting 89 yards in the air and 51 on the ground. The reason for the lack of offensive production was not because of turnovers, but a solid defensive effort by Florence.

Bryce found the end zone for two more passes in the third quarter to seal the win.

“It’s just one of those deals, like the Shelby County game, we were soundly defeated. It wasn’t fluky, it wasn’t luck and it wasn’t because of a couple breaks. Now we’ve got to learn from a whippin’ like that and see how we respond,” Yancey said.

The Lions (7-2) close the regular season at home Friday against Anniston at 7 p.m.