Generals turn tables on Hawks in second half of Dogwood District duel

NARUNA — Everything was going wrong. Gretna scored two touchdowns in the first three minutes Friday night at William Campbell and added another one before the Generals could catch their collective breath midway through the second quarter.

But as William Campbell coach Brad Bradley scanned the sidelines, he saw no panic. Instead, he noticed a quiet determination in his team to claw back into the game.

The Generals didn’t just sneak back into it though. They stormed back, scoring 34 unanswered points to turn back their biggest rival, beating Gretna 34-18.

“All we had to do was weather the storm, and I knew we’d be all right,” Bradley said.

That they did. Gretna (6-1, 2-1 Dogwood) set the early tone. Andre Dickerson took the opening kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown, and after Kevin Dale intercepted a Baron Adams pass, Gretna took advantage of the short field. Jayme Barksdale ran 12 yards for a touchdown, and the Hawks led 12-0 less than three minutes into the game.

Barksdale put Gretna up 18-0 with 8:57 left in the second after scoring on an 18-yard run. But after that, the Hawks got sloppy, and William Campbell made them pay for not putting the Generals away.

Gretna drove inside the William Campbell 20, but the drive ended when Barksdale, a converted receiver, threw one of his five interceptions. Terrance Younger won a jump ball with Tyler Rouff in the end zone to prevent a Gretna touchdown, and the momentum began to swing William Campbell’s way.

After the teams traded three-and-outs, the Generals broke through on the first of four Adams touchdown runs, a 6-yard scamper that cut the lead to 18-7 with 1:55 left in the half.

“We just never quit,” said Adams, who ran for 141 yards on 26 carries. “We were just killing ourselves. Then we started making adjustments at halftime and came out ready to play like we were supposed to in the first quarter.”

Gretna limited Campbell to two first downs in the first half, but the roles reversed after the break. The Hawks ran just eight plays in a third quarter dominated by the Generals, and William Campbell (7-1, 4-0) took the lead for good on Adams’ 4-yard touchdown run with 2:55 left in the third.

“It was really two games,” Gretna coach Chris Thurman said. “We came out and grabbed the momentum and they got the momentum back and never gave it up.”

Adams scored twice more in the fourth quarter on runs of 6 and 24 yards.

The Generals won despite managing just 196 yards of offense and nine first downs. The passing game was a struggle for both teams, as they combined for eight interceptions and 34 incompletions. They also combined for 23 penalties.

Bradley wasn’t concerned with style points, though, only the victory over a rival that put his team in the driver’s seat in the Dogwood race.

“Kids win games. Coaches lose games,” Bradley said. “Tonight, this game was won by our seniors. When we were down 18-0, you never saw one kid bicker with another kid. You never saw the panic. These kids stuck together. We knew we could win this game.”