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Deer Park Deer outlast Oak Ridge War Eagles in offensive shootout, 45-38

By: Jason Halpert, WOL Sports
| Published 09/20/2014

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SHENANDOAH, Texas- After a two week road-trip, the Oak Ridge War Eagles (3-1) returned to Woodforest Bank Stadium tonight hoping for some home cooking against the Deer Park Deer (4-0). Unfortunately, the Deer offense was too much and the War Eagles fell in a thriller that saw over 1,000 yards of total offense, 45-38. Watch it again On Demand.

The Deer Park Deer were led by running back Sammy Linton, who gashed the War Eagle defense to the tune of 145 yards on 17 carries, and had two touchdowns. Deer quarterback Cameron Thompson was perfect, going 13-13 for 232 yards and three touchdowns. Wide receiver Logan Berryhill caught all three of Thompson’s touchdowns, and had 110 yards on five receptions for the night. Deer Park finished the night with 548 total yards.

After coming up with 254 yards and five touchdowns last week against Klein Forest, Oak Ridge running back Kwame Etwi continued to marvel with long runs. He finished the night with 177 yards on 14 carries. He had two touchdown runs, one a 54 yard trek and the other an 82 yard romp. Quarterback Braden Letney went 10-20 for 213 yards and three touchdown passes, one to Kyle Townsend and two to Riley McKnight. Oak Ridge finished with 454 yards of total offense.

“Offensively we scored enough points to win the football game,” said Oak Ridge head coach Dereck Rush. “We didn’t get it done on the defensive side of the ball, and I take that responsibility.”

The game started with a long run by Deer Park running back Sammy Linton that appeared to have the Deer in prime position to score, but Oak Ridge managed to get a strong rip on the ball and caused a fumble before Linton could get down. The ball was recovered by the War Eagles at their own 10-yard line, and it didn’t take long for them to take advantage of their possession. A Letney pass to wide receiver Alex St. Louis went for 29 yards, and then Etwi busted through the line and went untouched for a 58 yard touchdown to make the score 7-0 War Eagles with 9:39 left in the first quarter after the two-play drive.

Deer Park seemed unphased by the deficit, and on their next possession quarterback Cameron Thompson rolled to his right and hit wide receiver Logan Berryhill, who had gotten behind the defense, for a 48 yard touchdown to even the score at 7-7 with 7:19 left in the first.

Oak Ridge’s offense hadn’t cooled off from their first possession, and after two plays they had the ball back into Deer territory at their 21-yard line, looking to pounce again. The Deer Park defense stiffened up this time and got a hit on Letney before he could get the pass away on third-and-7, and the War Eagles settled for a 35-yard field goal by Jason Maples to make the score 10-7 Oak Ridge with 5:23 left in the first quarter.

After a Deer punt to the Oak Ridge 9-yard line, the War Eagles continued their torrid offensive pace. After a 9 yard run by running back Lamar Handy, Etwi again got free and sprinted down the middle of the field for an 82 yard touchdown on yet another two-play drive. Etwi had three carries for 143 yards and two scores in the first quarter, and had already reached double digits with ten touchdowns on the season at this point. After the Etwi run, the scoreboard showed the War Eagles opening the score to 17-7 with 1:09 left in the first quarter. Oak Ridge had racked up 220 yards of offense by the end of the first quarter.

Deer Park got their feet under them to start the second quarter, and drove down the field on an 11-play drive, but a great open field tackle by defensive back Kevin Tillery Walker stopped the Deer in their tracks at the Oak Ridge 12-yard line. On 4th-and-2 the Deer settled for a 29-yard field goal by Andres Hernandez to make the score 17-10 in favor of the War Eagles with 8:44 left in the second quarter.

On the next War Eagle possession, Letney attempted to run up the middle but lost the ball while going down and Deer Park jumped on it. This gave Deer Park great field position at the Oak Ridge 35-yard line with 7:58 left in the second quarter. The Deer capitalized instantly as wide receiver Berryhill jumped over the War Eagle defense to catch a touchdown pass to even the score at 17-17 with 7:50 left in the half.

Deer Park quarterback Thompson had an efficient first half, to say the least, going 12-12 for 210 yards and three touchdowns (all to Berryhill) in the first half. On his twelfth throw he hit Berryhill on a corner route for a 9 yard touchdown to give the Deer their first lead of the night, 24-17, with 1:43 left in the half.

A fumble by Letney while scrambling on the first drive of the second half set Deer Park up in good field position, and at their own 44-yard line with 8:48 left in the third quarter, the Deer offense started rolling again. The quick drive ended for the Deer with a 20 yard scamper by Linton to the end zone. The Deer had scored 24 unanswered points at this part of the contest, and the score read 31-17 Deer with 7:52 left in the half.

Letney would get another opportunity and redeem himself on the next drive. After a timeout on 4th-and-7 to discuss the play on the Deer Park 29-yard line, Letney would unleash a perfect pass to wide receiver Riley McKnight on a post route to bring the score to 31-24 Deer Park leading with 2:06 left in the third quarter.

The next drive saw Deer Park wear down a fatigued War Eagle defense, running the ball on all nine plays for 75 yards, ending with a one yard run by Linton over the goalline to make the score 38-24 Deer Park with 10:32 left in the game.

Oak Ridge saw no points on their possession and punted. The Deer quickly made a costly mistake, as Deer running back Trey Farmer fumbled at his own 9-yard line to Oak Ridge linebacker Andrew Burke, and the War Eagles were in the red zone with 7:39 to go. Three plays later Letney floated a pass to McKnight in the back of the endzone and the score tightened to 38-31 with 6:21 left in the game.

As the Deer started to drive on their next possession, they continued their ground-and-pound attack, getting good yardage on first and second downs. After their eighth straight run on the drive for a total of 43 yards, Oak Ridge called timeout with 1:36 remaining, hoping for a big stop on 3rd-and-3. The ninth run of the drive, and 20th overall, ended with Deer Park 240 pound sophomore Jerrick Callis rumbling for a 17-yard touchdown run, and that put the score at 45-31 Deer Park.

With the game almost over Letney uncorked a deep pass, which was tipped, but fell into the hands of sophomore receiver Kyle Townsend and 58 yards later it was Deer Park leading the game 45-38 with 6 seconds remaining.

The ensuing onside kick for Oak Ridge never bounced up, and the ball was easily recovered by Deer Park, and the game ended with the Deer ahead 45-38.

“We have to move on,” said Rush. “It’s district next week, everyone is 0-0. We have to move forward, have a short term memory. We don’t make excuses, we have to come out and play physical for four quarters.”

Oak Ridge will get a chance to move on next week as they start district play on the road against Kingwood on Friday, September 26th at 7:30pm.

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