–Spencer’s six TD’s lead Rockets to lopsided win over McDowell
13 October 2007By Michael Painter
REYNOLDS - October 12, 2007 - All the hype leading up to Friday night’s meeting between McDowell and Reynolds was centered around the running of the Titans’ Terrance ‘Buggy’ Kincaid and how the Rockets were going to stop him. Well, someone forgot about the running back in the green jersey with the white #1 emblazed on it. His name is Darius Spencer.
All Spencer did was to rush for 211 yards on 17 carries (12.4 per carry) and score a personal best, 6 touchdowns, with five coming in the first half, to trounce the Titans, 51-14.
"Everybody talks about Kincaid when running backs are mentioned," said Reynolds’ Head Coach Shane Laws. "but we have a good tailback here in Fairview also and he proved it tonight."
The Rockets’ defense led by the ‘Blast Brothers’, Rudy and Tony Cabral, holding Kincaid to a season low 82 yards (one run was 70 yards) on 17 carries and one touchdown.
"We came in to shut down #24," said Rudy Cabral. "We worked against Darius this week to get ready for Kincaid."
"We put 7-8 people in the block all night," added Tony Cabral. "We made the decision that we had to stop him and not give up the big plays."
Spencer put on a high-light show for the Senior Night crowd. He scored on runs of 1, 5, 30, 1, and 62 in the first half and added a 70 yarder on the first series of the second half.
"The game plan was to eliminate the mistakes," said Spencer. "and take care of the ball."
On the Rockets second series after a nine yard punt by Kincaid gave the ball on them on the Titans’ 36, two passes from quarterback Paul Wright to Shawn Tressler put the ball on the one and Spencer took it in from there. The missed point after left the score at 6-0 with 7:03 left.
McDowell’s (2-7, 1-3) best series of the half started at their own 15, but five plays later, a fumble, recovered by Rudy Cabral, on a handoff exchange by quarterback Patrick Martin, gave the Rockets good field position at the Titan 40. A 20-yard pass to Cabral, along with a holding penalty, were sandwiched in between 32 yards rushing in five carries by Spencer, the last five going for the his second touchdown. Wright ran in the 2 point conversion to make it 14-0, just 24 seconds into the second period.
Reynolds’ (6-2, 4-0) defense held tight and forced a punting situation, but this time Kincaid took off running. Rudy Cabral chased him down behind the line of scrimmage and put him on the ground at the 25. After a five yard penalty put them back on the 30, it took Spencer just one play to hit paydirt. Shawn Foman’s PAT gave the Rockets a 21-0 lead with 10:33 left in the second.
Spencer capped off a 12 play, 54 yard drive with his second one yarder of the night. Another missed extra point gave the Rockets a 27-0 advantage with 4:54 left in the half.
Spencer got his fifth score of the half on a fantastic run of 62 yards. He put some great moves on the Titans’ defenders and got to the left sideline and outran the secondary to the endzone. The point after gave the Rockets a 34-0 lead at the 3:17 mark.
On McDowell next series, Stephen Murfin recovered a fumble for the Rockets at midfield. A 43 yard pass got the ball to the seven, where Foman kicked a field goal to give the Rockets a 37-0 halftime lead.
Reynolds got the second half kickoff and after a five yard penalty and a four yard loss on a run, Spencer did it again. We went off tackle, breaking four tackles and streaked down the right sidelines for a 70 yard touchdown. With the PAT, the score was 44-0 with 10:51 left in the third.
At this point, Laws started emptying his bench. They forced McDowell to punt again, starting on the Titans’ 46. Kyren Gibson, in for Spencer covered the 46 in two runs, the first one a 43 yarder to the 3 and he took it in from there, giving the Rockets a 51-0 lead.
McDowell scored twice in the second half. Kincaid ran 70 yards for a touchdown as time expired in the third quarter and Melvin Staten scoped up a fumble and ran it 35 yards for the score, giving the Reynolds fans a welcome 51-14 victory.
The Rockets’ Wright finished the night 11/16 passing for 159 yards and ran five times for 37 yards. Brandon Knox ran four times for 31 yards, Gibson was 10 for 101 yards and Rudy Cabral had one catch for 11 yards.
"We knew we were outmanned," said the Titans’ Dave Haynie. "We needed a perfect game to win. They wipped us up front on both sides of the ball. They are a good football team with great speed."
Reynolds has a bye next week and McDowell hosts East Burke.
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