Sandies Open District Play With Win

Grapeland Defeats Evadale, 41-6

By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter

GRAPELAND – The Grapeland Sandies welcomed the Evadale Rebels to Sandie Stadium on Friday, Sept. 28 for the District 12-2A DII opener for both teams. The Sandies came into the contest with a 3-1 record while the Rebels had a record of 3-0.

Evadale was supposed to be a test for Grapeland early in league play. The Sandies had defeated the Rebels in the BI-District round of the playoffs last year by a final of 28-27 but word was Evadale had a host of returning players.

Whether the Rebels did or did not was irrelevant simply because Evadale had game planned to stop the Sandies aerial attack, but forgot to take into account Grapeland has a pretty good run offense, as well. In the end, both phases of the offense were clicking on all cylinders as the Sandies pulled away in the fourth quarter to win by a score of 41-6.

Grapeland opened the scoring with 7:35 left in the first quarter with a 22-yard scoring strike from QB Rick Frauenberger to wide-out Keriaun Davis. The PAT was good and the Sandies had a 7-0 lead they would never relinquish.

The next time Grapeland had the ball, the Sandies went to the ground as Josh “Bear” Ackley bulled his way across the goal line from six yards out. The extra point was good and with 1:21 left in the first quarter, the Sandies led by a score of 14-0.

An eight-yard rushing TD, by Grapeland’s Keizion Ashford, at the 4:35 mark of the second quarter opened up a 20-0 lead which the Sandies took into the locker room at halftime.

As the second half of the game got underway, the Rebels finally got on the board with a rushing TD of their own as Will Pharr scored from five yards out. The two-point conversion was no good but the Grapeland lead had been cut back to 14 as the game entered the final period of play.

While the Evadale fans were hoping for a comeback, the Grapeland defense rose up to stonewall the Rebels as they shut them down in the fourth quarter.

So far this year, the Grapeland defense has only allowed 50 points through five games for an average of 10 points per contest.

While the Grapeland defense was playing lights out, so was the Sandies’ offense. When they took possession of the ball to start the fourth quarter, Grapeland slammed the door shut on any hopes of an Evadale comeback.

Frauenberger connected with BJ Lamb on a 35-yard screen pass for a touchdown to push the lead out to 27-6 and then the Sandies tacked on two more touchdowns in the fourth quarter to pull away from the Rebels for a relatively easy 41-6 win.

The Sandies will hit the road next Friday as they travel to Burkeville for a game against the Mustangs. Burkeville is coming off of a 67-0 loss to the Lovelady Lions. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].