Patriots score five TDs in second half to bury Panthers

BRADENTON

One half was plenty for one win Friday night as Bradenton Prep won its homecoming game 42-3 over Bradenton Christian at Sarasota Ford Field.

The Patriots (4-1 and 2-0) took the Class 1B-District 6 cross-town showdown over the Panthers (2-3 and 1-2) after only being up 7-0 at the half. Bradenton Prep piled it on after the break, throwing up two touchdowns in the third quarter and three in the final period.

"They (BCS) had a nice scheme, packing the box and trying to get in our quarterback's face, figuring he couldn't handle the pressure," said Bradenton Prep head coach Joe Hammond. "But in the second half, the (offensive) line sealed them off and let our quarterback have a little more time to find the open receivers."

Zach Hammond did just that, picking apart the Panthers secondary and making their defense's aggressiveness work against them as he hit on two of his three pass attempts for 53 yards and a touchdown in the second quarter. He finished an efficient 7 of 14 for 163 yards with two touchdowns.

The only score in the opening half came on the Patriots' first drive of the second half. Hammond found Tervaris Hines (3 catches, 80 yards), who did most of the work on the 50-yard score to cap a seven-play drive.

It didn't take Bradenton Prep nearly that long to find the end zone again, as Bruce Livingston picked a Bradenton Christian pass and cruised untouched for a 37-yard score to double the margin.

The Pats took less than four minutes to add to that, as tailback Jared Williams did most of the work, finding the end zone from a yard out after taking it down to the 1-yard line on a 36-yard scamper.

Williams was the workhorse, finishing with 140 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries. Of course, 109 of those yards came on just eight carries in the second half.

The Panthers only score of the game was a 37-yard field goal by Austin Dumas with just under 12 minutes left in the game. Dumas also put on a punting display, with three punts over 40 yards.

Bradenton Prep did the rest of the scoring thanks to three big plays. The best was a reverse that was fumbled, scooped up by Tervaris Hines who rumbled 73 yards and outran the entire Bradenton Christian defense for a 35-3 lead.

With two minutes left in the game, the Patriots closed out the score-fest with a 44-yard touchdown run for Williams, who also finished with three catches for 81 yards.