Sandies Hold Off Alto for Third Straight Win
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
GRAPELAND – After two weeks of comfortable wins, the Grapeland Sandies found themselves in a considerably tighter battle Friday, Oct. 2.
They found a way to win that one, too.
Grapeland defeated Alto 28-21, giving the Sandies their third consecutive victory after opening the season with back-to-back losses.
The final numbers showed how competitive the matchup was. Alto finished with 309 yards of offense, while Grapeland produced 288, but the Sandies got an efficient night from quarterback Eli Deleon, leaned heavily on Diego Fajardo on the ground and made several disruptive plays when Alto had the football.
Fajardo was the workhorse of the Grapeland offense, carrying the ball 33 times for 92 yards. The Sandies ran the ball 52 times altogether and finished with 172 rushing yards.
Deleon contributed another 44 yards on nine carries, while Traylon Gaines rushed eight times for 25 yards and Jalen Woods added 11 yards on two attempts.
While the Sandies kept the ball on the ground for much of the night, Deleon made his opportunities through the air count.
He completed nine of 11 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown, an 81.8% completion rate.
Woods was Deleon’s busiest target, catching five passes for 51 yards. Fajardo caught two passes for 24 yards, while Dan Newman added a 10-yard reception.
Ky’Darius “Chunky” Gilmore provided Grapeland’s biggest passing play of the game, hauling in a 31-yard touchdown reception. The play accounted for Deleon’s longest completion of the night and his passing touchdown.
The performance came against an Alto team Grapeland Athletic Director and Head Football Coach Jordan Wood expected to provide a good athletic matchup for the Sandies.
“They’re athletic and they’re going to match up with us well, but it comes down to taking care of the football,” Wood said before the game. “I think if we take care of the football and don’t turn it over, I think we’ll be okay. But if we turn the football over, it could be rough for us.”
Alto was able to move the football Friday, but the Grapeland defense kept the Yellowjackets from turning enough of those yards into points to take control of the game.
Alto finished with 160 rushing yards and 149 passing yards, but Grapeland held the Yellowjackets to 21 points.
Fajardo was as busy on defense as he was carrying the football.
He led the Sandies with nine tackles and two tackles for loss, giving him a major role on both sides of the ball throughout the night.
Gaines supplied some of Grapeland’s most disruptive defensive plays. He finished with 4.5 tackles, a tackle for loss and two sacks while also forcing two fumbles.
Fajardo was credited with a fumble recovery.
Chandler Coleman added four tackles and a tackle for loss as the Sandies’ defense found ways to slow an Alto offense that still finished with slightly more total yardage than Grapeland.
The victory continued a turnaround Wood had been seeing develop over the previous several weeks.
Before the Alto game, Wood said he had continued stressing to his players that Grapeland could compete when it prepared properly and avoided creating problems for itself.
“That’s what I preach to them: If we prepare right, and if we take care of the ball, we can play with anybody,” Wood said. “But if we don’t take care of the football, anybody can beat us.”
Grapeland’s season began with consecutive losses, but the Sandies have answered with three straight victories.
The turnaround began with a 52-6 victory over Groveton before Grapeland followed with a 29-7 win over Cushing.
Alto presented a different sort of challenge.
Rather than another comfortable margin, the Sandies found themselves in a one-score game against a team that was able to move the football both on the ground and through the air.
This time Grapeland had to finish a close one.
The 28-21 victory kept the streak alive and gave the Sandies another winning performance to build on as the season moves deeper into October.
Grapeland will next travel to Tenaha on Saturday, Oct. 10, with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m.
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
