NARUNA — Two weeks ago, the Brookville Bees fumbled the ball eight times and got hammered. Friday night, the Brookville Bees fumbled eight times and won by 18 points. Welcome to high school football.
According to Brookville coach Bobby Johnson, his team’s 26-8 win at William Campbell wasn’t pretty, but it counted.

“It wasn’t pretty at all,” said Johnson, “but we got a win. Our goal in coming here was to leave 2-1, and we’re that.”

The Bees relied mainly on the inexperience and mistakes of a very young Generals team — there are only three seniors on the squad — as Brookville was able to capitalize on an awful performance by the William Campbell special teams unit. The Generals had four fumbles in the game, including the opening kickoff, and all of them were on special teams. Add to that a blocked punt, a safety, an illegal procedure call on a kickoff, and an on-sides kick that went at total of 18 inches, and it’s easy to see why William Campbell coach H.S. Ingo wasn’t too happy with his kicking game.

“We did it again in the kicking game,” said Ingo, whose team fell to 1-2 with the loss. “Our kicking game has had problems all year long, and they were able to capitalize on our mistakes.”
Johnson feels like the pressure his defensive unit was applying also had something to do with the Generals’ poor kicking performance.

“We’re trying to take a little pride in (our special teams),” said Johnson. “We think it’s something we’re good at, and we feel like we can put some pressure on some teams.”

It was the Bees’ special teams that started out the scoring on the night as William Campbell punter Rajah Walthall watched the snap from center sail over his head and into the endzone. With Brookville’s Jeff Torrence, who had already blocked one punt in the game, approaching quickly, Walthall wisely knocked the ball through the endzone for a safety and a 2-0 Brookville lead.

An illegal procedure on the ensuing kickoff gave the Bees the ball at the William Campbell 49 yard line, and Brookville quickly took advantage of the situation. On second-and-five, Bees’ quarterback Chad Steuck hit wideout Martellus Braxton for a 30-yard gain. Brookville running back Dejon Kennedy busted up the middle on the next play from scrimmage for a 14-yard score, and after Chris Cumberland’s extra point, the Bees led 9-0.
In the second period, Brookville took advantage of another William Campbell miscue as the Bees’ Matt Burch picked off a pass from Dominique Yuille and returned it to the Generals’ 20 yard line. A clipping call brought the ball back to the 46, and the Bees proceeded to fumble on three consecutive plays before Johnson called a time out on fourth-and-one.

“I think a lot of times, we come out and press too much,” said Johnson. “We were pressing tonight to make the big play, and that’s not our style of football. We were a little flustered, so I called the timeout to get them to focus on the fundamentals and just settled down and get the first down.”
Kennedy did more than just get the first down, as he responded to Johnson’s words by exploding up the middle for a 37-yard touchdown run. Cumberland added the extra point and a late field goal to give his team a 19-0 halftime advantage.

“This was a character-builder,” said Ingo. “I’m proud that my guys didn’t quit. They kept their heads up. But we can’t spot a good football team 19 points.”

After a big return by the Brookville squad on a Walthall punt set the Bees up on the William Campbell 35 yard line, Kennedy broke out for his third big scoring run of the night — this one from 31 yards out. Kennedy finished the night with 12 carries for 99 yards.

The Generals kept plugging away, though, and eventually got things on track in the final period behind the strong arm and quick feet of Yuille. The junior quarterback led his team on a nine-play, 70-yard drive, that was capped by Yuille’s 19-yard scoring strike to running back Zarmaine Cofield. Yuille finished the game with 108 yards passing, on 7-of-11 attempts with an interception and a touchdown.

“We’ll continue to get better as the year goes along,” said Ingo. “Nobody ever expects us to even be close to Brookville, but we hang with them every year.”

The Bees will try to push their record to 3-1 next week as they host Northside, while William Campbell will try to even its record at 2-2 in a home game against the Red Devils of Rustburg.