By Stephen D. Riley
AFRO Staff Writer
(Courtesy Photo/mghelmets.com)
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(October 25, 2009) - The Paint Branch Panthers came into Friday’s game against the Clarksburg Coyotes with one goal in mind: stop Andrew Veith. Stop him they did, shutting down Clarksburg in a 14-6 win on Oct. 23.
Clarksburg’s senior quarterback had rushed for 100-plus yards in four consecutive games and led the Coyotes to 35 points per game in that same span.
But Veith was harassed all night by Paint Branch, rushing for only 37 yards before connecting with wide receiver Sam Collins for a 67-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Harassed all night by Paint Branch defenders Ivan Tagoe and Courtney Wallerson, the electric Veith threw an interception and was under constant pressure.
“We were really looking to stop Veith,” Paint Branch coach Mike Nesmith said in a statement on gamedaymagazine.com. "He’s really been hurting everybody that he’s come across and they really haven’t been able to stop him. We really zeroed in on him and tried to make somebody else beat us."
Paint Branch led 14-0 with less than four minutes left in the game before Veith found Collins for the score to make it 14-6. By the time Clarksburg got the ball back with only seconds remaining, they were playing in desperation and Veith’s Hail Mary pass was intercepted to end the game.
“When we scored that touchdown we thought we had a chance but we needed to get a quick defensive stop to have a chance,” Veith told gamedaymagazine.com. “Their defense wasn’t going to let us score quickly again so needed more time than that.”
Paint Branch moved to 7-1 with the win while Clarksburg dropped to 6-2 this season.
Clarksburg will battle 6-2 Damascus High School and Paint Branch will take on 3-5 Magruder High School on Oct. 30.