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Kenny Fey

Pendleton High School’s Tyler Stewart, left, runs through the tackle of a Broome defender during the Bulldogs’ 14-7 win Friday at Cunningham Stadium in Pendleton. Stewart rushed for 75 yards and the game-winning touchdown.

PENDLETON — Paul Sutherland wasn’t going to take any chances Friday night.

With the rain coming down and Broome known for its opportunistic play on defense, the Pendleton High School head coach decided he was going to play it conservative and take his chances with his defense and special teams.

It turned out to be a good call. After kicker Zachary Sears pinned the Centurions at their own 16-yard line with a 39-yard third-quarter punt in a tied game, the defense forced a three-and-out and then the moment Sutherland had been hoping for occurred.

Broome’s snap to punter Tyler Massey skipped the ground and slipped through the junior’s hands. The ball rolled into the back of the end zone where he picked it up and rolled to his left. Instead of just running out of bounds and settling for a safety, he instead chucked it downfield, where C.J. Gleaton was there to bat the ball to the ground.

The play was ruled an incomplete pass, but more importantly gave Pendleton the football at the Broome 12-yard line. Three plays later, Tyler Stewart rumbled through a gaping hole off left guard for what turned out to be the winning touchdown in the Bulldogs’ 14-7 victory.

“I had just now told my coaches that I’m going to punt it back and make them play with it at their end of the field,” Sutherland said. “We weren’t going to take any chances. I wasn’t going to give their defense a chance to win the ballgame and our offense wasn’t going to lose it.”

The offense definitely did not lose it. The Bulldogs (8-3) rushed for 176 yards with Stewart rushing for 75 of those yards on 11 carries.

“We worked on it all week in practice,” he said. “(The coaches) told me there will be a lot on my shoulders and that I just have to play good, so I just came out and did what my coaches asked me to do.”

Broome (5-6) was giving up just 95.1 yards a game on the ground before Friday night.

“That’s Pendleton football,” Stewart said. “That’s what we had to get back to doing, running the ball. We just knew we could do it.”

Stewart’s go-ahead touchdown with 5:45 to play in the third quarter was redemption of sorts for the senior after a second-quarter fumble ended a promising drive.

“The fullback game is getting better, better and better,” Sutherland said. “He had some big runs and had that one costly fumble there that we have to work on, but that’s my fault not teaching good enough.”

Stewart’s fumble was just one of many missed opportunities for Pendleton in the first half. The Bulldogs gained 192 yards in the first 24 minutes, but four different times they drove inside the Broome 40 and came away with no points.

“We told them that we just have to keep playing,” Sutherland said. “It’s the playoffs. We didn’t finish. We knew and the kids knew what was causing that. We were stopping ourselves. They kept saying that, and they picked each other up.

“We didn’t do anything different in the second half, I can promise you that. We just had to keep playing the fundamentals. We got the one break, and we took advantage of it.”

Broome took advantage of a blown coverage in the Pendleton secondary on the game’s third play from scrimmage, when Chase Henry found Dijon Farr streaking down the left sideline for an 81-yard touchdown pass.

“Our defense played well. We gave up that one cheap one, which they have athletes, so they are going to get a cheap one on you,” Sutherland said.

After that, the Centurions got nothing cheap as Pendleton held them to 135 total yards the rest of the night, including just 54 on the ground.

“I told my coaches that we were just going to keep playing defense and make them play with the ball on that end of the field. Our defense played well,” Sutherland said.

The Bulldogs tied the game 7-7 in the second quarter when they capped a 10-play, 48-yard drive with a 2-yard plunge from Reggie Earle. They converted two third downs to keep the drive going, including a 9-yard run from Stewart on third-and-eight from the Broome 34.

Earle then raced 11 yards and quarterback Gibson scrambled for 10 more, setting Earle up for his touchdown.

Pendleton will travel to Pageland next Friday in the second-round of the playoffs where they will play Region 4-AA champion Central, who beat Gilbert Friday night. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

Pendleton 14, Broome 7

Broome 7 0 0 0 — 7

Pendleton 0 7 7 0 — 14

SCORING SUMMARY

First quarter

B—Farr 81 pass from Henry (Massey kick), 10:54

Second quarter

P—Earle 2 run (Sears kick), 9:24

Third quarter

P—Stewart 5 run (Sears kick), 5:45

TEAM STATISTICS

PHS BHS

First Downs 19 9

Rushes-Yards 49-176 19-54

Passing Yards 60 162

Com-Att-Int 6-13-0 10-26-1

Punts-Yards 3-34.3 3-40

Fumbles-Lost 1-1 0-0

Pen-Yards 6-49 9-54

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—Pendleton, Stewart 11-75; Earle 17-55; Hill 10-51; Gibson 5-7; Brown 5-2. Broome, Leggett 8-31; Crocker 4-9; Woodward 1-7; Herbas 2-4; Henry 2-3; Farr 1-1; Tracy 1-(-)1.

PASSING—Pendleton, Gibson 6-13-0 60. Broome, Henry 9-23-1, 161; Crocker 1-2-0,1; Massey 0-1-0, 0

RECEIVING—Pendleton, Gleaton 3-36; Eubanks 2-11; Hatter 1-13; Broome, Farr 5-117; Wilkins 1-18; Leggett 2-17; Martin 1-9; Weeks 1-1.