Published: October 03, 2008 11:59 pm      

Gibson accounts for three touchdowns to lead Sesser-Valier over Carmi, 22-18

By PAUL T. WILCOXEN

paul.wilcoxen@register-news.com

SESSER — Junior Kendall Gibson accounted for all three touchdowns Friday night as Sesser-Valier/Waltonville/Woodlawn pulled off a come-from-behind victory over Carmi-White County, 22-18, in Black Diamond Conference action at Sesser.

"We are a team that seemingly thrives on momentum," said Red Devil coach John Shadowens. "Sometimes when things are going bad we kind of turn around and look at each other to see who's going to make a play. Kids have to step up and say, 'I want to make a play,' and tonight a couple kids did."

The Bulldogs led throughout the contest up until a touchdown pass from Kendall Gibson to Dane Eubanks with 2:32 left in the game put the Red Devils ahead 22-18.

Trailing 18-7 with 6:06 left in the fourth, SVWW cut the lead to 18-15 after Gibson found Brock Wheatley from 15 yards out before the 6-feet-4-inch quarterback scrambled into the end zone for the two-point conversion.

"Kendall played well," said Shadowens. "[It was] probaby his best game of the season. He handled the rush better tonight. He got outside and stayed cool.

"He grew up a lot against Christopher and I think that helped him out tonight, as well."

Gibson threw for 152 yards on 14 of 28 passing and an unfortunate interception in the first half.

The Red Devils scored their first touchdown, not by using the throwing arm of Gibson, but from a scramble by the quarterback from 15 yards with 2:14 to play in the first half, which cut into Carmi's lead, 12-7.

Zach Johnson delivered Friday night with two extra point kicks.

Shadowens feels the touchdown scored in the first half was important because it built momentum for the second half.

"We finally got a stop on defense and we got a little lift from that," said Shadowens. "We had a nice drive to make it 12-7 at the end of the first half and we felt pretty confident then."

The Bulldogs are a run first, run always team, as they attempted only two pass plays. Both were gimmick plays and both were incomplete.

"Kurt Simon gets the most out of his kids," Shadowens said. "He doesn't have as much talent as he has [in the past]. They're going to line it up toe-to-toe and they're going to run at you. They're going to run hard and they're going to be fundamental and if you're not, they'll run right over you."

As a team, Carmi rushed for 263 yards on 55 carried. Leading the team were a pair of 100 yard rushers in Ethan Healy (19 carries, 119 yards) and Logan Rogers (112 yards on 21 carries).

Although Carmi was able to rack up plenty of yards on the ground, when push came to shove, the Red Devil defense stepped up and made plays.

Two of the biggest stops came on Carmi’s last two offensive possesions where SVWW forced a three and out and a turnover on downs to seal the victory.

“We gambled our butts off. We challenged them and they bowed their necks and said, 'No not here, not again.' We turned them loose a little bit more and let them play,” Shadowens said.

“We allowed the defense to play a little bit and made them more aggressive.”

Sesser-Valier moves to 2-4 on the season and will take on Elkville (Elverado) next week at home beginning at 7 p.m.



Carmi-White Co. 12 0 6 0 - 18

SVWW 0 7 0 15 - 22

First Quarter

C — James Smith, 1-yard run (run failed), 7:25. Carmi 6, SVWW 0.

C — Ethan Healy, 42-yard run (run failed), 4:03. Carmi 12, SVWW 0.

Second Quarter

SVWW — Kendall Gibson, 15-yard run (Zach Johnson kick), 2:14. Carmi 12, SVWW 7.

Third Quarter

C — Brian Watts, 1-yard run (run failed), 1:37. Carmi 18, SVWW 7.

Fourth Quarter

SVWW — Brock Wheatley, 15-yard pass from Gibson (Gibson run), 6:06. Carmi 18, SVWW 15.

SVWW - Dane Eubanks, 6-yard pass from Gibson (Johnson kick), 2:32. SVWW 22, Carmi 18.

Team Statistics

C — First downs 10 (10 run); Rushing 55-263; Passing 0-2-0-0; Total Yards 263; Fumbles 2 (lost 2); Penalties 3-35.

SVWW — First downs 7 (1 run, 5 pass, 2 penalty); Rushing 20-30; Passing 14-28-1-152; Total yards 182; Fumbles 0; Penalties 4-20.

Individual Statistics

Rushing — (C) Ethan Healy 19-119, Dylan Tomassetti 5-10, Logan Rogers 21-112, James Smith 8-28, Brian Watts 2-(-6); (SVWW) Tyler Rock 9-23, Brock Wheatley 9-5, Kendall Gibson 10-11, Team 1-(-9).

Passing — (C) Tomassetti 0-1-0-0, Rogers 0-1-0-0; (SVWW) Gibson 14-28-1-152.

Receiving — (SVWW) Dane Eubanks 4-37, Wheatley 3-31, Gavin Basset 2-39, Casey Hammond 1-17, Jordan Kirk 4-28.