Columbus — By HARVEY SIMPSON

Dispatch Sports Editor



COLUMBUS —Physically and mentally, Dooly County High coach Jimmy Hughes felt his Bobcats were ready for their Region 4-A Friday night clash with Brookstone’s Cougars. Emotionally, though, they were anything but.

“We were really flat coming out of the gate and that’s my fault,” Hughes said of his team’s sluggish start that resulted in an early 15-0 deficit that led to an eventual 28-16 defeat.

“Our kids knew and understood what Brookstone would do both offensively and defensively as we (the coaching staff) had gotten that across to them.

“What we didn’t get across was that the game is played with a lot of emotion and that when one team has it and the other doesn’t as was the case for us it makes for a lot of problems.”

Ironically, Dooly appeared ready to go all out when it took the opening kickoff and drove to the Cougars’ 23 before turning the ball over on downs.

Brookstone immediately cranked up a three-play, 77-yard march that ended with Drew McCluskey breaking off a 40-yard scoring run one snap after his cousin Brewton McCluskey had rambled for 30 on a dive play.

After forcing a Dooly punt, Brookstone launched a 50-yard, five-snap TD drive capped by D. McCluskey’s 10-yard smash. A 22-yard pass from Duncan Fletcher to Tim Kennedy was the big gainer along the way.

Late in the first period, Dooly began a 60-yard, eight-play touchdown thrust during which Mark Clark had a key 4-yard, fourth-down gain to move the chains to the Cougar 47.

Three plays later, Castonio Lucas found Jartae Haugabrook with a 45-yard TD toss on the first play of the second period and then hit him with a two-point conversion pass to make it 15-9.

The home team rose to the challenge with another of its patented clock-killing drives. This one covered 59 yards and required 10 plays including a 22-yard sweep by D. McCluskey. That put the ball at the Bobcats’ 2

See BROOKSTONE page 2B

from where Brewton McCluskey powered his way into the end zone.

Staring now at a 22-8 deficit, Dooly put up the only points of the third period at the end of an 80-yard, eight-play excursion.

Aerial connections of 34 and 29 yards between Lucas and Haugabrook, who on the night hooked up nine times for 152 yards, helped move the ball to the 3. Zachary Hooks ran in from there for the score before Clark’s conversion run made it 22-16 with 3:44 left in the stanza.

As it turned out, the Bobcats would only get their hands on the football one more time the remainder of the game as Brookstone’s power running game chewed up not only yardage (352 for the night) but also clock (they held the football for 20 of the 24 minutes in the second half).

The Cougars got the final points of the contest 8:04 from the finish on Fletcher’s 14-yard pass to Nick Eagle. That play climaxed an 80-yard, 17-hike drive during which D. McCluskey had a 22-yard romp that swelled his individual rushing total to 176 yards on 16 carries.

“We had them in a third-and-20 situation before McCluskey had that big gain on a reverse type play which turned out to be huge,” Hughes said. “Had we gotten our defense off the field instead of giving up the first down, we might have had a chance to come back and win as they were having trouble stopping us at times as well.

“We just didn’t attack the line of scrimmage and the ball carrier like we did the week before (in an 8-0 win over Greenville). I think we got tired, too, from having to play so many kids both ways.

“What we’ve got to do now, though, is pick ourselves back up and return to playing with a sense of urgency knowing that every game we play is a big one since they all fall into the region category.”

The next of those contests comes on the road Friday at 7:30 in Montezuma against Macon County.



Score by Quarters

Dooly County 0-8-8-0 — 16

Brookstone 15-7-0-6 — 28



Scoring Summary

First Quarter

  9:51 B — Drew McCluskey 40 run (Hunter Ciuba kick)

2:56 B – McCluskey 10 run (McCluskey run)

Second Quarter

  11:51 D — Jartae Haugabrook 45 pass from Castonio Lucas (Haugabrook

 pass from Lucas)

  2:19 B — Brewton McCluskey 2 run (Ciuba kick)

Third Quarter

  3:44 D — Zachary Hooks 3 run (Mark Clark run)

Fourth Quarter

  8:04 B — Nick Eagle 14 pass from Duncan Fletcher (run failed)



Team Statistics

First Downs: D 10, B 17.

Rushes-Yards: D 15-20, B 48-352.

Yards Passing: D 184, B 51.

Passes C-A-I: D 13-25-0, B 3-5-0.

Fumbles-Lost: D 0-0, B 2-0.

Punts-Average: D 3-30.3, B 1-30.

Penalties-Yards: D 4-20, B 7-60.



Individual Statistics

  Rushing: Dooly — James Muse 6-18, Clark 4-9, Haugabrook 1-3, Hooks 1-3, Lucas 3-(-13); Brookstone — B. McCluskey 15-104, D., McCluskey 16-176, Joey Lewis 9-60, Madison McCluskey 4-14, E.J. Schwann 1-8, Fletcher 3-(-10).

  Passing: Dooly —  Lucas 13-25-0 184; Brookstone — Fletcher 3-5-0 51.

  Receiving: Dooly – Haugabrook 9-152, Muse 2-19, LaKourtney Bryant 1-10, Courtney Clark 1-3; Brookstone — Kennedy 1-22, D. McCluskey 1-15, Eagle 1-14.