Rice’s big run turns tide for Demons

CACHE—Sometimes you can run a simple play like a quarterback draw with a special athlete like Duncan’s Sawyer Rice and suddenly the momentum in a football game change in an instant.

Cache had dominated the first half of its season opener against the Demons Friday at Ulrich Stadium, owning a 14-0 lead and having the Duncan offense pinned deep 80 yards from paydirt with 23 seconds left.

On a 3rd-and-10 from the 31, Rice ran the QB draw, found a seam and angled toward the Cache sideline. Two Bulldogs took a bad angle, Rice got around those two, pulled away from another tackler and completed the 69-yard scoring play with 0:00 showing on the clock. The Bulldogs did block the PAT attempt to lead 14-6 at halftime but that took a lot of steam out of the Bulldogs.

“It was just a quarterback draw,” the junior Duncan QB said. “I saw they were taking a sharp angle and I was able to get around them. After that we were able to find some more consistency on offense and found a way to win.”

It was a tough loss in the head coaching debut of Cache’s Tanner Thompson who seemed to be in command until that play turned the tide.

“We just made that one huge mistake on that play,” Thompson said. “I thought our defense played pretty well but you give up one like that and it takes something out of you.”

While the Bulldogs’ offense moved the ball well in the first half, something changed at the break.

“Give Duncan some credit, they made some good defensive adjustments and were able to slow our offense down,” Thompson said. “We got behind the chains on offense in the second half and we aren’t good enough yet to be able to recover. We made some bad penalties and those really hurt our chances.”

In fact, the Bulldogs were only called for one penalty of 10 yards in the first half but ended up with 10 in the second half for 79 important yards.

Three of those penalties came on one drive early in the fourth quarter with the Bulldogs still leading 14-12. One was an illegal substitution on a Duncan kickoff, then Cache was called for a chop block that set it back 15 more yards and on the next play the Bulldogs were called for an illegal man downfield. The result was a 1st-and-30 from the Cache 23.

The Bulldogs got eight back on a pass play but on a 2nd-and-22 Cache quarterback Canden Hance tried to get enough on a pass over the middle and it went into the hands of Duncan’s Boston White who took the interception back deep in Cache territory but it was brought back to the Cache 43 for a holding call.

Two plays netted just two yards but on 3rd-and-8 Rice ran an outside zone play and found a gap in the Cache defense and raced in to score with 9:48 remaining. Rice tacked on the PAT run and the Demons had all they needed leading 20-14.

Cache, though, was able to get three more offensive possessions after that with one being stopped on a 4th-and-1 at the Duncan 21 with 5:25 remaining.

But the Bulldogs’ defense got a quick three-and-out and took over at the Duncan 30 after a bad punt by the Demons. This time the Bulldogs faced key 3rd-and-9 and 4th-and-9 plays and on the fourth down Duncan’s Onyx Mayfield put a big rush on Hance and forced him to throw it up for grabs but there was no receiver in the area.

Cache’s defense gave up a couple of big first downs but got the ball back at its own 29 with 48 seconds remaining. The Bulldogs picked up two first downs and moved to the Duncan 40 before three straight incompletions ended their hopes.

The Bulldogs got on the board first when Hance hit De’Andre Frazier for a 27-yard scoring pass with 5:49 left in the first quarter. And with 4:25 left before the half, Hance dropped a perfect strike to Luke Montgomery who went high to beat a pair of Duncan defenders to the ball on a great 21-yard TD catch. Ben Angiel tacked on his second PAT for the 14-0 lead.

Duncan coach Matt Terry said his coaches and players made some good adjustments in the second half.

“We weren’t expecting that option game from them,” he said. “That is going to make their offense tough to defend after they have a chance to run it more. Our guys did a better job in the second half.”