Hurley-St.Paul

[Unchained]

By The Continuous News Desk

Published: September 4, 2009
BY ANTHONY STEVENS
Sports Correspondent
ST. PAUL, Va. ? The Hurley Rebels overcame six turnovers to remain undefeated on the young football season. In a rare Thursday night game, Hurley outlasted St. Paul 28-26 in Division 1 play at Bowman Field.
Hurley (2-0) had to fight back the entire night. But it had just enough to get by St. Paul. The Rebels? senior running back Gary Blankenship finished with 173 yards rushing on 28 carries and two touchdowns.
Blankenship has suffered through a lot of adversity. His father died recently. Blankenship hurt an ankle in a scrimmage and saw limited action last week against Ervinton.
?Blankenship has been a little antsy, losing his Dad at the start of summer camp,? Hurley coach Greg Tester said. ?I?m happy for him ? this is what he needs. Blankenship had a good game, and he was relentless. He only weighs 130 pounds, but he runs like he is 200 pounds.?
St. Paul capitalized on five turnovers ? two interceptions and three lost fumbles ? in the first half by Hurley.
David Kiser recovered a Rebel fumble and raced 41 yards for a score. Freshman safety Reid Edmonds who had an outstanding game picked off an Austin Cooper pass and returned it 23 yards for a TD.
After a two-point conversion by Addison Rasnick, the Deacons led 14-0.
Hurley answered with a 6-play, 60-yard drive. Cooper hit Dustin Waynick with a 16-yard scoring pass for the first score.
St. Paul then had its first offensive TD. It was set up when quarterback Trevor Hileman lateraled to Denver Fritz who passed top Bryce Lawson for a 47-yard gain. Hileman then tossed a two-yard TD pass to Lawson for a 20-6 lead at the half.
After all the turnovers, Hurley simplified its offense in the second half. Most of the time, that meant handoffs to Blankenship.
?We just went I-formation and went straight at them,? Tester said. ?With our miss direction in the first half, we had some fumbled snaps and that hurt us a lot. We decided to come out and use our strength: our offensive line.?
The first series of the second half, the Rebels turned the ball over on downs. The next three possessions resulted in touchdowns. The Rebels caught a break after Todd Hurley recovered a St. Paul fumble in the end zone for a touchdown.
Blankenship then scored on an 11-yard rush to tie the game 20-20. St. Paul fought back when Lawson tossed a 74-yard TD pass to Edmonds to go back up by six 26-20 after the conversion failed.
That left the door open for Hurley. The Rebels saved their best drive of the game for the fourth quarter: 13 plays that covered 91 yards and took more than seven minutes off the clock, with Blankenship
scoring on a five-yard run. After a penalty on Hurley, Blankenship still put the winning points on the board with a 6-yard run for the two-point conversion.
St. Paul (0-2) played without starting quarterback Tyler Phillips who has been out with a medical problem. Hileman, who replaced him, was injured late in the first half and didn?t return. The Deacons used four different quarterbacks in the game.
?It was a tough, tough loss,? St. Paul coach Mark Palmer said. ?A lot of our kids got banged up. But my kids played their hearts out. They played so hard and tried to pull this one out.?

[timmy_v]

How in the hell can u turn the ball over 5 times in the first half and still win? St paul must be horrible

[Unchained]

Had SP had Tyler Phillips in this game,they would have won it. That tells me that all the hype from Hurley is unwarranted,and they are overrated.

[pepporoni]

It is called a whole lot of luck. They were down 14-0 then 20-6 and fought back. Hurley has a really decent defense, they get after you. I think they knocked 2 out of the game by half and sent 2 more to the hospital at the end of game. St. Paul couldn't run the ball and take any time off and kept letting them come back. St. Paul and Hurley are not to bad but we will see in the weeks to come.

[gridironguru]

Hurley played there hearts out.....nuff said.

[sup-rbeast]

Wow...now there's a power house..

[pepporoni]

I read the Bluefield paper this morning and had Hurley holding St. Paul to -34 yards rushing and 156 passing. I think most of the passing yards came on 2 plays, a 30-35 yard play before half and a 74 yard TD pass in second half. I knew there was a lot penalties but this game was crazy 13 for Hurley and 9 for St. Paul.

[VHSLhelper]

I was wondering last night how a team could have -16 yards rushing at the half and be ahead by 14. That's small-school football for ya.

[gridironguru]

ccc

[Unchained]

LMAO-post of the year right there. You are right about my Indians not being in the same class as Hurley or St. Paul. The TRIBE would beat either one of them by 4-5 TDs. LPD>BDD/CD. And to top it off,you go whining and ragging on SWVA football board because I said the Rebs were overrated. That's priceless right there.

You'll be ok. As for saying what you said on the LPD board about SP or Hurley kicking the Tribe's arse? That one was a riot. LPD teams fare very well vs BDD and CD squads. My point will be proven when a Thomas Waker squad that JJK held to 9 yds in total offense last week (a 42-0 drubbing on the TW home field no less) starts beating CD teams. For what it's worth though,I hope Hurley has a great season and wins the BDD. God knows we're tired of seeing Haysi and Honaker kill you all and the other BDD squads every year. I'd love to see someone else win the BDD for a change. Greg Tester is a good guy (worked with him at the prison for a bit before he left). Best of luck to the Rebels this season.