Sports

Friday, Nov. 06, 2009

D’Iberville drubs St. Martin

ST. MARTIN — D’Iberville took control of its rivalry game against St. Martin on the first possession, and the Warriors dominated throughout.

Greyson Chambless scored two touchdowns to lead a balanced offensive attack and the Warrior defense limited the Yellow Jackets to 96 yards of total offense, as D’Iberville blanked St. Martin 24-0 Friday in the regular-season finale at Joe F. Barlow Stadium.

“We played great defense,” D’Iberville coach Buddy Singleton said. “Our defense did a great job. We took the opening kickoff down and scored and that was big. This is a big rivalry.”

D’Iberville finishes the regular season 5-6 overall, but the Warriors went 5-2 in Region 4-5A and will be the third-place team from the region. The Warriors will travel to Picayune next Friday.

St. Martin (4-7, 3-4 in Region 4-5A) dropped its final four games, after a 3-0 start in the league.

Chambless had a big night on both sides of the ball for D’Iberville. The junior had three catches for 108 yards and a 65-yards touchdown reception from Jake Ladner, and also came up with a couple of big plays on defense.

“We really stopped their run on defense,” said Chambless, after the Warriors limited St. Martin’s option attack to 98 yards rushing. “And they couldn’t do anything through the air.”

D’Iberville, on the other hand, got its offense in gear early – taking the opening kickoff and driving 70 yards in 10 plays.

Senior running back Joe Prine, who led D’Iberville with 73 yards rushing on 15 carries, had four runs on the opening drive for 32 yards, including a 4-yard burst off left tackle to make it 7-0 with 7:09 left in the first period.

The Warriors dug deep in the playbook for a little razzle-dazzle for their next touchdown.

D’Iberville ran a flea flicker and after a fake reverse, the ball was pitched back to Ladner, who found Chambless wide open behind the St. Martin secondary for a 65-yard TD. Andrew Bentz’ PAT made it 14-0 DHS with 8:20 left in the half.

“That was tight,” Chambless said. “We worked on that play all week. That was sweet.”

Ladner, who completed 4 of 11 passes for 117 yards, said he just had to lay it up for the speedy wide receiver.

“That was amazing,” Ladner said. “I just had to chunk it up there. He was open by 20 yards.”

The Yellow Jackets didn’t get their initial first down until just over seven minutes were left in the half. St. Martin was limited to three first downs for the game.

Yellow Jacket punter John Robbins was busy with seven punts for a 29.5-yard average.

D’Iberville rolled up 226 yards of offense in the first half and finished with 342 yards. The Warriors ran for 225 yards with Cliffy Nettles getting 57 yards on 12 tries and Greg Vercher added 65 on just three runs.

“That was a perfect offense in the first half,” Ladner said.