Sussex Central Malik Bell (5) leads the team out, photo courtesy of Ben Fulton
Georgetown – Sussex Central scored twice in the final four minutes to pull away from Laurel in an inter class game and the season opener for both teams. It was the first time the two schools met in over 30 years.
Sussex Central ranked fourth in Class AAA defeated the Laurel Bulldogs ranked third in Class AA 36-21.
After a scoreless first quarter Laurel broke open the scoring when Koby Shockley scored on a one yard run to start the second quarter. The touchdown was set up by a 34 yard halfback pass from Royce Scotton to Isaiah Miller.
The Golden Knights answered right away when Sam Pucci scored on a 78 yard kick return, Rodney Escobar-Gonzalez added the extra point as Sussex Central tied the game 7-7.
Sussex Central head coach John Wells elected to have the Bulldogs to rekick instead of taking the ball at the 35 yard line after the first kick went out of bounds.
“When you have speed you have to use it when you can, we didn’t score on our first couple of possessions so having them kick again five yards back worked out for us,” Wells said.
Laurel was forced to punt on their next possession, the Golden Knights then put together their first scoring drive going 58 yards on seven plays capped off by a 20 yard touchdown pass from Gabe Cannon to Joaquin Rodriguez-Costa giving the Knights a 14-7 lead with 6:56 left to play in the first half.
With four minutes to play in the first half JaJuan Sturgis ended a Laurel drive causing and then recovering a fumble at Golden Knights 37 yard line, but the play was short lived as Xavier Limehouse made a diving interception to give the Bulldogs the ball in Sussex Central territory.
Shockley then took over the short seven play drive completing two passes and running the ball four times with a four yard sneak up the middle to cap off the scoring drive leaving just 23 seconds left in the half. The point after kick was missed as Laurel trailed 14-13.
Malik Bell opened the third quarter scoring for the Golden Knights with a 33 yard run breaking several tackles at the line of scrimmage and then going down the right sideline extending Sussex Central’s lead to 21-13.
“Malik is a hard runner, that run was a big play to start the second half for us,” Wells said.
Bell led all rushers carrying the ball 10 times for 97 yards as the Golden Knights amassed 215 total yards including 195 yards on the ground.
Laurel answered the Sussex Central score again on Shockley’s third touchdown of the game. Shockley’s one yard run capped off a 75 yard drive taking 5:11 off the clock cutting the score to 22-21.
Laurel amassed 173 yards with 102 coming on the ground. Shockley carried the ball 14 times for 37 yards with three touchdowns.
“Laurel is a very good football team, they are going to cause teams problems this year. They came ready to play tonight,” Wells said.
Sussex Central pulled away scoring the final two scores of the game as Cannon scored on a one yard run and Sturgis returned an interception 45 yards for a touchdown giving the Knights a 36-21 victory. Sturgis had two take-a-ways in the game.
Sussex Central, ranked fourth in Class AAA (1-0) heads north to take on number one ranked (Class AAA) Middletown (1-0) next Friday night. Laurel (0-1), ranked third in Class AA will travel to Class A Brandywine (0-0) in the Battle of the Bone with a 6:00 P.M. kickoff.
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