BAINBRIDGE – Bainbridge-Guilford used a heavy dose of Pepper to spice up its offense, and the Bobcats’ stingy defense did not give up an offensive point in salting away a 26-6 victory Friday night.
B-G quarterback Justin Pepper had a career night dashing for four touchdowns. For the game, the Bobcats rushed for 260 yards, and Pepper sprinkled in two timely passes in the second half to set up the go-ahead touchdown.
“We knew how important this game was for us because it’s not going to get any easier for us the rest of the season,” said B-G fourth-year head coach Tim Mattingly. “We really felt that if we could get this division win, it would hopefully set the tone for the rest of the season.”
Before B-G got untracked in the second half, it needed to get a firmer grip on the football. Other than Pepper’s 28-yard bootleg keeper to paydirt midway through the first quarter, the Bobcats were stymied by turnovers.
Harpursville scored its only touchdown of the game, when, B-G running back Dakota Vandermark was stripped on an outside run. The ball bounced around near the goal line, and Harpursville’s Richard Ruggiero came up with the ball on the goal line for the tying touchdown. Harpursville missed the extra point leaving the score at 6-6.
Five B-G turnovers in the first half – plus two other fumbles that slowed offensive drives – made sure that the Bobcats would not add to their point total.
“We fumbled snaps, threw interceptions, fumbled the ball on drives...give Harpursville credit, they came to play,” Mattingly said. “You’re not going to be successful turning the ball over that many times.”
Thankfully, B-G’s defense rarely bent, and allowed just one Harpursville trip into the redzone through four quarters. Ryan Dalpiaz connected on the three passes for the Hornets that yielded first downs early in the third, but the drive fizzled after an untimely penalty.
B-G, meanwhile, utilized a big pass play from Pepper to Ryan Porter for 19 yards and a first down on the Bobcats’ first drive of the second half. Pepper threw three passes in the first half, two were intercepted, and the other attempt was nearly picked off.
Still, Mattingly called a sprint-out pass in which Pepper had the option of running or passing. Pepper chose the latter option to great success – twice, in fact, the second one to Porter for 23 yards on the same possession.
“We knew the bootleg was open, Justin just wasn’t looking to throw that at all in the first half,” Mattingly said. “We knew our kids were getting deep, we set that up for the second half, and it was open.”
Pepper completed the go-ahead TD drive with under four minutes left in the third quarter on a four-yard do-it-yourselfer.
Pepper had two more scoring runs of two and 14 yards in the second half. Along the way, running backs Jake Taylor and Daren Terpstra chewed up big chunks of yardage to move the chains behind a dominant offensive line.
“I think our size kind of wore them down,” Mattingly said. “We were a little bigger and more physical, and we kind of beat them down.”
Taylor had 80 yards rushing, Pepper, 66, and Terpstra 61. The Bobcats play Hancock this Friday.
Score by Quarters
Harp. 6 0 0 0–6
B-G 6 0 6 14–26
