West Bladen’s Eli Hinnant (6) looks for running room as East Bladen’s Dyson Moore moves in for the tackle during Thursday’s middle school football game.
Sonny Jones / Bladen Journal
East Bladen (white) and West Bladen (purple) players battle during Thursday’s football game at Bladenboro Middle School.
Sonny Jones / Bladen Journal
BLADENBORO – The first meeting between East Bladen and West Bladen middle school football teams wasn’t decided until the fourth quarter.
Malikhi Bizzell scored on a 13 yard run and converted the 2-point conversion with 5:13 remaining Thursday night in lifting East Bladen to a 20-14 victory. The outcome left both teams with 2-2 records.
Master sports schedule | Standings
This is the second year that Clarkton School of Discovery and Elizabethtown Middle have combined players to form East Bladen. It’s the inaugural season for West Bladen that has players from Bladenboro Middle and Tar Heel School. The move to combine schools for football was made because of reduced rosters.
Each team wears uniforms matching the respective high schools with West Bladen dressed in purple and gray with “Knights” on jerseys and East Bladen dressed in royal blue and white with “Eagles” on jerseys.
West Bladen drove 60 yards in nine plays with the opening kickoff for an 8-0 lead with 1:59 remaining in the first quarter. Daveon Whittington had four carries for 20 yards and Eli Hinnant raced 33 yards that helped set up a 1 yard touchdown run by lineman Brayden Freeman. The 2-point conversion attempt was successful.
It was the only score of the first half.
East Bladen’s Dyson Moore returned the second half kickoff 69 yards for a touchdown, receiving the ball near the left hashmark, crossing the field to the right, then running down the sideline with only 15 seconds elapsed in the second half. The conversion attempt failed, but the Eagles had cut the deficit to 8-6.
West Bladen put together another time-consuming drive for a 14-6 advantage with 1:52 left in the third quarter. Whittington capped the 51-yard, eight-play drive with an 11 yard scamper along the right sideline.
Again, East Bladen struck quickly. An unsportsmanlike penalty against West Bladen after the kickoff return set up the Eagles at the West Bladen 28. Moore scored on the first play from scrimmage with 1:52 remaining in the third quarter that pulled the Eagles within two points, 14-12.
The East Bladen defense stopped West Bladen on downs on the ensuing possession and took over at the Knights’ 47. On the fourth play from scrimmage, Khalil Moore’s 8 yard run moved the ball to the 26 and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against the Knights sideline moved the ball to the 13. Bizzell scored the touchdown on the next play, then, after another unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against the West Bladen sideline, ran the 2-point conversion that gave the Eagles a 20-14 lead with 5:13 remaining.
West Bladen drove the ball to the East Bladen 24 before a fumble was recovered by the Eagles’ Kylan Rogers with 2:15 remaining. Moore’s 18 yard run for a first down on a third down play sealed the win for the Eagles.