Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

PROCTORVILLE — Keedrick Cunningham turned thief. Good thing for him his theft wasn’t a crime.

Cunningham had a big game on offense running the football, but it was defensive play that proved to be the difference as the Fairland Dragons held off the Rock Hill Redmen 21-14 in an Ohio Valley Conference game on Friday.

The Dragons led 15-7 late in the third quarter and the Redmen had the ball at their own 19. On first down, the Redmen ran a sweep and Cunningham came up to make the stop.

But instead of making the tackle, he took the ball from the Rock Hill running back and ran 22 yards for a touchdown with 36 seconds on the clock for a 21-7 lead.

The play capped an impressive game for the Fairland senior who ran 14 ties for 207 yards and a touchdown.

Fairland (2-3, 2-0) had 243 yards on the ground and just 39 through the air. Ty Wilcoxon ran twice for 46 yards and caught three passes for 27 yards including a touchdown.

Rock Hill (2-3, 0-2) had 266 total yards with all but four coming on the ground.

Cameron Barnette ran 27 times for 92 yards to lead a balanced backfield. Zak Adkins had 67 yards on 12 carries, Brayden Friend 56 yards on five tries and J.J. Hackworth 47 yards on seven attempts.

Cunningham ran 56 yards for a touchdown on the second play of the game for a 6-0 lead.

The Dragons got the ball back and drove to the 14-yard line before the drive stalled and Tayton Hunt kicked a 32-yard field goal and it was 9-0 with less than a minute in the quarter.

Rock Hill drove to the Fairland 34 before the drive stalled.

A 36-yard run by Cunningham helped get the ball to the 15-yard line and then Wilcoxon took a screen pass and went 15 yards for the touchdown and a 15-0 lead.

The Redmen answered with a 74-yard, 12-play drive capped by Barnette’s 3-yard run. Brady Floyd kicked the conversion.

After the stripped ball play, Rock Hill marched 52 yards in eight plays when Friend scoring on a quarterback sneak and it was 21-14 with 8:47 to play.

Fairland went three-and-out and the Redmen took over at their own 26.

Rock Hill drove to the Fairland 27 but a fourth down pass came up one-yard short at the 23 to end the drive. Fairland took a knee on the next two plays to end the game.

Next Friday Rock Hill hosts South Point and Fairland entertains Gallipolis.

Rock Hill         0          7          0          7          =          14

Fairland           9          6          6          0          =          21

First Quarter

Fa — Keedrick Cunningham 56 run (kick failed) 11:10

Fa — Tayton Hunt 32 field goal 0:51

Second Quarter

Fa — Ty Wilcoxon 15 pass from Joel Lambiotte (kick failed) 6:38

RH — Cameron Barnette 3 run (Brady Floyd kick) 0:40

Third Quarter

Fa — Keedrick Cunningham 22 fumble return (kick blocked) 0:36

Fourth Quarter

RH — Brayden Friend 1 run (Brady Floyd kick) 8:47

——

RH      Fa

First downs     16        10

Rushes-yards  51-262 22-243

Passing yards  4          39

Total yards      266      282

Cmp-Att-Int    1-4-0   5-8-0

Fumbles-lost   1-1       1-0

Penalties-yards            2-10     5-59

Punts-average  1-43.0  3-31.7

——

Individual Leaders

RUSHING — Rock Hill: Cameron Barnette 27-92, Zak Adkins 12-67, Brayden Friend 5-56, J.J. Hackworth 7-47; Fairland: Keedrick Cunningham 14-207, Ty Wilcoxon 2-46, Chase Fisher 2-9, Joel Lambiotte 4-minus 19.

PASSING — Rock Hill: Brayden Friend 1-4-0 4; Fairland: Joel Lambiotte 5-8-0 39.

RECEIVING — Rock Hill: Zak Adkins 1-4; Fairland: Ty Wilcoxon 3-27, Keedrick Cunningham 1-15, Chase Fisher 1-minus 3.