Sylva-Bay zips past PCA, 39-12

Published 12:24 am Saturday, October 6, 2012

Porters Chapel made a bushel full of mistakes Friday and Sylva-Bay was there to take advantage of every one of them in a 39-12 beatdown on homecoming.

The first quarter cast a pall over the rest of the night for PCA (3-4). Christian McNeil returned the opening kickoff 50 yards to the PCA 38-yard line. Six plays later, Kolton McCarty found a wide-open Justin Bumgardner for a 20-yard TD strike to put Sylva-Bay up 6-0.

After the Saints’ defense forced a three-and-out, Michael Ducksworth took the punt return 80 yards to paydirt and Garrett Wells’ PAT put Sylva-Bay up 13-0.

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The Eagles finally got into Saints’ territory on their next drive, as Zac Morgan hit Jamee Hill for a 48-yard completion that put some life into the homecoming crowd. Morgan’s next attempt was picked off by McNeil, but PCA’s defense got a stop on third down, forcing a punt.

That was when Peter Harris went to work. He bobbled the punt, backpedaled, went left, went right and then found the sideline, racing 99 yards to get PCA on the scoreboard. Peyton Guider’s PAT was blocked, but the Eagles were down just 13-6 at the start of the second quarter.

Harris later left the game as a precautionary measure after being dragged down from behind and he finished with a season-low 31 yards on six carries.

On Sylva-Bay’s next possession, McCarty found a wide-open Garrett Wells for a 57-yard scoring strike that silenced the crowd and give the Saints a 19-6 lead at halftime. The Saints nearly added to that advantage as time expired, but Tyler Butler, who caught a long pass from McCarty, was shoved out of bounds just a foot from the pylon.

“The killer was we gave up three cheap touchdowns on blown assignments,” PCA coach Wade Patrick said. “It should’ve been 6-6, 7-7 at halftime. We had trouble moving the ball on them. We had some things that were there, but we just didn’t make enough of them.”

After the break, the Saints (3-5) kept up the pressure. Randy Duhon scored on a 5-yard carry and McNeil scored on a 5-yard run late in the third to put the game out of reach.

Butler capped the scoring for Sylva-Bay, jumping an out route and taking Morgan’s pass 50 yards for a score to put Sylva-Bay up 39-6 with 11:46 left in the fourth quarter.

Justin Hearn gave PCA its only points of the second half, taking the handoff 25 yards for a touchdown.