W’boro bests Fort

Waynesboro came to play Friday night against district foe Fort Defiance in it homecoming game. The Little Giants came up big on defense and offense to defeat the Indians 40-16.

Fort scored first on a drive that took nearly six minutes off the clock with Daniel Wright taking the ball five times to push down the field. The drive was capped off by a nine-yard touchdown run by Chris Huffman.

Trailing early, the Little Giants’ Terrell Thompson and Steven Brown ran the ball down to the one-yard line where Thompson punched it in for the TD. Thompson added the two-point conversion to tie the game at eight.

Waynesboro would never look back as on its next possession Eric Craig busted off a 35-yard TD run. Brown ran the two-point conversion to the corner of the end zone putting the Little Giants up 16-8.

Thompson added another score late in the first half for Waynesboro on a 24-yard run to the outside. The Little Giants went into the half up 24-8.

In the third the Waynesboro defense stepped up to challenge the Indians.

With the Indians inside the Waynesboro 15-yard line, Fort’s Jordan Parker fumbled the ball and a sprawling Jacob Lipscomb recovered for the fumble.

The Giants found themselves going four-and-out on consecutive drives. On fourth down early in the fourth the Little Giants were set to punt from inside on their own five-yard line.

The punter was ran into by a Fort defender, giving the Little Giants new life on the automatic first down.

On the next play Brown pushed through Indians’ defenders as he busted off a 73-yard run, putting the ball on the Indians’ six-yard line.

Two plays later Thompson ran in for the touchdown putting Waynesboro up by an insurmountable 32-8 lead.

“I just ran as hard as I could and my offensive line blocked,” said Brown. “My team is what caused that run to happen”.

Waynesboro coach Steve Isaacs was proud of how his team responded after being pinned inside their own twenty.

“We were only up two scores and if we turn the ball over down there and do something dumb and they come back and score it’s a whole new ballgame,” said Isaacs. “Steven got to the edge and he was gone. We had been running that play all night and they had been shutting us down.”

Thompson who finished off the run with the touchdown was pulling for Brown to get the touchdown.

“He needed to use the stiff arm down there so he could score,” Thompson said. “ I was hoping he would get in there. He deserved it.”

The Indians were able to muster up one final touchdown on a 90-yard kickoff return by Ryan Hutsenpillar.

The Little Giants got one last touchdown on a 26-yard TD pass from Thompson to Tyler Briggs.

The win gave the Giants their second for the year and their first in district play.

Isaacs gave all the credit to his team for the win.

“This win is all about the team. They are ones who won this game,” he said.