Football

Vernon-Verona-Sherrill 14, Sherburne-Earlville 7

SAUQUOIT – Sherburne-Earlville turned the ball over twice inside V-V-S’s 10-yard line in the fourth quarter, and came up a touchdown short in its season finale Wednesday against V-V-S.

Early in the fourth, a pass from Randy Briggs found Austin Jasper on a pass play, and Jasper was knocked out of bounds at the one-yard line. On the next play, though, S-E fumbled the ball back to the Red Devils.

After forcing a V-V-S punt, S-E drove for the tying scorer again. Briggs, bruised and battered, hit Felix Rodriguez on a pair of passes, the latter to the V-V-S three. An intentional grounding penalty moved S-E back, and Briggs’ third-down pass was intercepted with less than 20 seconds left to end the scoring threat.

“To be honest, I think we played better in this game than some of the games that we won,” said S-E coach Mike Jasper. “We knew we were an underdog, but the kids had a real good attitude, and it was a good, close game. We just didn’t do quite enough things to pick up the win.”

V-V-S blocked a punt on S-E’s first possession of the game, and had a short drive capped by a two-yard TD run.

S-E battled back to tie the game later in the quarter. Briggs hit Cole Hodges on a 25-yard TD pass, and Garrett DuVall’s PAT kick tied the game.

The score remained 7-7 into the third quarter when Red Devils back Nash Robb dashed 59 yards for a touchdown. “We were down 7-0 in the first three minutes of the game, and we could have easily folded,” Jasper said. “The kids really fought back. We shored things up on defense when we had, and we forced three fumbles.”

Briggs and fellow S-E quarterback Matt Smith were a combined 13-for-32, and passed for easily the best Marauders passing total in years, 211 yards.

Score by quarters