BLACKSVILLE — The Clay-Battelle Cee-Bees were bested on homecoming by the visiting Meadow Bridge Wildcats on Friday night 38-22. After a halftime lead of only 6-0 for MB, the two teams combined for 54 points in a second-half shootout.
Meadow Bridge sophomore running back Kaiden Sims carried the ball 28 times for 400 yards and all six touchdowns for his team. C-B senior quarterback JC Spears was 19 for 28 with
229 yards passing and three touchdowns but the effort wasn’t enough as the Cee Bees (2-4) dropped another game at home.
“Give credit to Meadow Bridge they were a heck of a team and had some great size,” C-B head coach Ryan Wilson said. “We had our normal halftime talk, we were in it at the half and came out and played well on offense in the second half. Credit to Kaiden Sims, their whole team is so big and strong.”
The opening half didn’t see much on the offensive side of the ball, as each team used a lot of the first-quarter clock during their opening drives .
The Cee-Bees went nearly six minutes with the ball but failed to convert a fourth and two from the Wildcats’ 14-yard line. Sims then went 43 yards for the opening score of the game to give his team a 6-0 advantage. They would hold the same lead at halftime as neither team found much success on offense in the second frame.
“We just asked our offense what they were seeing and adjusted to that,” Wilson said of the halftime talks. “JC made some good throws and Braden (Ponceroff) made some plays for us too. We had a good fight there coming out of the locker room.”
The opening kickoff of the second half didn’t manage to go across midfield, giving the Wildcats good field position to start. Sims only needed one play from scrimmage to score his second touchdown of the game, this time a 43-yard run.
Less than a minute later, after a quick three and out by C-B, Sims added his third touchdown of the game going 76 yards to the house, giving his team a 20-0 lead with 10:50 to play in the third.
The hosts finally got on the board with a 29 yard pass from Spears to Ponceroff to break the ice for their team and cut into the lead 20-8 after a successful two-point conversion.
After a stand on defense, Spears connected with Ponceroff once again for a 27-yard strike. After another two-point conversion the MB lead was just 20-16. However, just as he had done all game so far, Sims would get the ball and run into the end zone, this time on a 72-yard score. After the third quarter, the lead was 10 at 26-16 for the visitors.
Another Sims touchdown opened the fourth quarter, but the Cee-Bees answered the score with a 23 yard pass from Spears to receiver Josiah Morgan, once again shrinking the deficit to 10 at 32-22.
With 5:56 left to play in the game, the Wildcats got the ball back and used the pair of Sims and Trent Roles to grind away at the C-B defense and ice the game with less than a minute to go as Sims scored his fifth and final touchdown of the night to give MB a 38-22 lead. The sophomore finished with 400 yards and six scores.
“We’ve been getting better every week and try our hardest out there,” Sims said. “My guys got some good blocks out there and we just kept pushing. I’m really proud of the team tonight and we will carry this into the week.”
C-B falls to 2-4 and will travel to visit Cameron next week.
MB 6 0 20 12 – 38
C-B 0 0 16 8 – 22
SCORING SUMMARY
MB Sims 43 run (try failed)
MB Sims 49 run (2pt good)
MB Sims 76 run (try failed)
C-B Ponceroff 29 pass from Spears (2pt good)
C-B Ponceroff 27 pass from Spears (2pt good)
MB Sims 72 run (try failed)
MB Sims 19 run (try failed)
C-B Morgan 23 pass from Spears (try failed)
MB Sims 2 run (try failed)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS:
RUSHING: Meadow Bridge – Sims 28-400-6TD, Roles 14-122, Sawyers 2-8, Thomas 2-4; C-B – Shriver 4-0, Gum 4-(-3)
PASSING: Clay Battelle – Spears 19-28 229-3TD; Meadow Bridge – Thomas 0-1
RECEVING: C-B – Morgan 8-116-TD, Ponceroff 9-120-2TD, Gum 2-16
