Ground Attack Huge For Newton In 39-21 Win Over McEachern
On Friday, the McEachern Indians hosted the Newton Rams in non-region play as the Indians looked to keep some momentum coming off their win last week over rival Hillgrove. Newton, off to a 2-0 start, looked to remain perfect on the early start of the season and defensively came out setting the tone early when sacking McEachern quarterback, Bryce Archie, in the end zone for a safety. On the ensuing offensive possession for the Rams, running back Rontravious Perry would break free for a rushing touchdown, his first of three and the Rams would go on to take a 9-9 lead.
Offensively, McEachern struggled throughout most of the first half as they would never produce any points in the first two periods of play and find themselves trailing 18-0 at the half. The Rams would strike quickly at the start of the third quarter as Perry would score his second touchdown of the night, giving Newton a 25-0 lead. McEachern would finally get an offensive spark and get on the scoreboard after a quarterback keeper by Archie to make it a 25-7 game. The Rams would answer back on the ensuing possession with a rushing touchdown by Zion Johnson, his second of the night, but McEachern never quit fighting as they would hold the Rams at bay long enough to tack on two more touchdowns and cut it to a 32-21 lead for the Rams with 4:29 to go in the game.
Unfortunately, that would not be enough time for the Indians and as Perry would score his third touchdown of the night, Newton would pick up the 39-21 win, improving to 3-0 on the season. Following the win, Newton head coach, Camiel Grant stated that establishing the run attack was important for them coming into Friday’s match up. “We want to run the football. We understand that the game is still running the football, we were able to fit well. Our backs were able to get vertical seems and run north and south, the quarterback did a good job in the run game, so it really was about us being locked in on the things that we teach them to do every week, we really did a good job of that tonight,” Grant said of Friday’s victory.
