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September 2, 2010
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Scoring woes doom Purple Hurricanes
Published November 1, 2009
CONYERS — After a streak of close games, Monroe regressed Friday night against the Heritage High School Patriots, dropping the game 20-7.
“I think the defense did a good job,” said coach Matt Fligg. “(Heritage) scored with two pass plays and two field goals, so we did a good job holding them overall.”
While the defense got the praise, the Purple Hurricanes offense started the night strong, looking to jump to a dominating lead.
After fielding the opening kick off at the 30, Monroe mounted a 9-yard, three minute, 41 second drive — including a fourth down conversion on fourth-and-10 — to score first with a 1-yard touchdown run by quarterback Demontavious Smith. Cody Brown’s extra point kick was good for a 7-0 lead.
Not yet aware that the score would be their only points of the game, the ’Canes looked dominating early on. With the defense holding Heritage on fourth downs and forcing three and outs, the Monroe offense had room to breathe.
Yet every strong start to a drive quickly sputtered to an end in a flurry of penalties or sacks. After an anemic punt that failed to gain 10 yards, the Patriots were ready to capitalize on the offensive miscues.
With the ball on the Monroe 30, the Patriots drove down to the 5 in only three plays, only to be held to zero rushing yards on the next few attempts. Settling for a 22-yard field goal by Tyler Peoples, the Patriots narrowed the score to 7-3.
Monroe mounted another strong drive to answer, driving 53 yards in five plays and three first downs to threaten the Patriots comeback. Yet a false start penalty and an incomplete pass left the ’Canes with another fourth-down situation and this time they were unable to convert.
After back-to-back three-and-outs by both teams, Heritage finally called the play it needed. On his own 45, Patriots quarterback Andre Wilson threw a 55-yard strike to Gary Peters, who pulled a Monroe defender the last five yards to reach the end zone and take the lead.
Monroe forced a punt on the Patriots first drive of the second half, only to throw an interception on its ensuing drive. Taking advantage of the turnover, the Patriots mounted an 11-play drive that lasted 6:16, converted two fourth downs and ended with a 17-yard touchdown pass from Wilson to Peters to extend the lead to 17-7.
Monroe tried again to start the fourth quarter, but Smith’s passes sailed wide and Monroe eventually turned the ball over on downs at the Heritage 35.
The Patriots responded, running the ball on every play to run seven minutes off the clock and end with a 29-yard field goal.
Down 20-7 with less than two minutes, the ’Canes had one last attempt to narrow the Heritage lead. Yet back-to-back sacks by Smith almost doomed Monroe. Smith was able to save the drive with a 36-yard pass on third-and-38 and then an 11-yard run for the first.
Out of timeouts and with less than a minute to play, Monroe went to the air, but Smith’s passes remained inaccurate. After throwing the ball out of bounds, Smith threw his third interception of the night and Heritage saved the win.
“We moved the ball up and down the field but gave it up in the red zone and couldn’t score,” Fligg said. “We got to learn to block better.”
The Monroe losing streak extended to 19 games with the loss. Monroe will have one last chance at a Region AAAA win next week against Rockdale County.
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