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Braves beat West, win I-SS title
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Published: October 29, 2009
Updated: 10/28/2009 12:00 am
TROUTMAN - If Brawley Middle was supposed to lose to top-seeded West Middle in the Iredell-Statesville Schools middle school championship Wednesday night at South Iredell High School, the Braves didn't get that memo.
The Braves blitzed the Mustangs with a 20-point first quarter and rolled to a 26-6 victory to make history.
"No Brawley team had ever won the championship," Braves coach Sean Gallagher said. "We were trying to bring the first one home, and we did it."
Shane Gottberg rushed for 65 yards, including three touchdowns, as the Braves (6-1) avenged their only loss of the season.
West (6-1) defeated Brawley 24-10 in the season opener.
"We've been telling our guys all season that we are the best team out here and played great except for our first game," Gallagher said." We told the boys, 'Listen, we've got six games left, let's win out. And we did. The guys played great."
Brawley set the tone Wednesday night with a quick score.
After, Kyle Plaster's 40-yard return on the opening kickoff, the Braves needed just three plays to score from the West 20-yard line. Gottberg capped the drive with a 13-yard touchdown run.
West fumbled away the ball on the first play of its first possession, and Brawley capitalized moments later on Gottberg's 14-yard TD run.
It was 14-0 less than three minutes into the game.
And it got worse for the Mustangs.
Quarterback Brett Pope was intercepted on West's second possession by Alex Gilleland.
Brawley turned that into six more points, as Ryan Keith's 1-yard plunge upped the Braves' lead to 20-0 with 2:35 remaining in the first quarter.
"(Brawley has) got better through the year," West coach Robbie Pope said. "We knew it was going to be a better game. We knew they were going to bring it. Tonight wasn't our night."
West turned the ball over six times. The Mustangs fumbled the ball away twice, and Brett Pope was intercepted four times.
"We're in the hole 20-0 just like that," Robbie Pope said. "You put yourself in a hole like that and then they back up pretty much and play prevent. Our strength is throwing the football, and they were ready for it. … Never could get the run going either."
Running back Brevin Renwick led West with 133 yards on 27 carries, and most of those came on his 50-yard TD run in the second quarter, which trimmed the Mustangs' deficit to 20-6.
But safety Josh Ladowski's dazzling 58-yard interception return –which included hurdling a tackler -- set up an insurance score for the Braves late in the second quarter.
Gottberg's 3-yard TD run punctuated a three-play, 26-yard drive that produced the final margin.
Ladowski also rushed for a team-leading 88 yards, with several carries coming out of the Wildcat formation and the direct snap going to him. He also threw a pass for a 43-yard completion and caught a pass for 20 yards.
"He's one of those kids that has got the spark," Gallagher said. "You can't coach the attitude piece of it, and he's got it."
The loss was a bitter pill for West to swallow after running the table during the regular season against the other six Iredell-Statesville Schools teams.
"It's disappointing to them," Robbie Pope said, "especially being their last middle school game."
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