GREENLAND — Greenland running back Calvin Giddens rushed for 260 yards and four touchdowns and the Pirates defeated Melbourne 54-38 on Friday at Jonathan Ramey Memorial Stadium.
On the second play of the game, Giddens found and opening and scored on 60-yard touchdown run to give the Pirates the first lead of the game. A fumble on the ninth play of the first offensive drive for the Bearkatz and a 73-yard run by Greenland’s junior running back increased Melbourne’s deficit to 14-0 just six minutes into the game.
“On those first few holes, I don’t think he was touched,” Greenland coach Lee Larkan said. “They played man in the secondary and that took away aspects of the passing game because they did so well doing that, but you give something up by doing that and our plan was to run the ball a lot and we were able to do that.”
Gamebreaker
Greenland 54, Melbourne 38
Why the Pirates won
The Pirates established the run game, rushing for nearly 500 yards against the Bearkats.
Why the Bearkatz lost
Melbourne made some big plays, but also lost a few costly turnovers, including a fumble on the ninth play of its opening offensive drive.
Still, the Bearkatz responded and managed to score often, just not enough to stage a legitimate comeback. Melbourne quarterback Kyler McLaughlin threw a 92-yard pass to Cody Goodman to cut Greenland’s lead to 21-16 early in the second quarter, but Giddens’ fourth touchdown of the night, a 63-yard run, increased the Pirates’ lead to 35-16 at halftime.
“We played poorly early and that’s all there is to it,” Melbourne coach Clinton Gore said. “They only ran about two plays and it seemed like they put up about 5,000 yards doing that and that’s all it took.”
Giddens finished the first half with 241 yards on just 10 carries. The junior running back credited his offensive line for Greenland’s offensive success.
“This week the line came out and did a good job and they worked hard tonight and opened up some holes for us,” Giddens said. “They were awesome this week in practice. They did their job and they worked hard tonight.”
While Giddens had a career night, Darian Froud also surpassed 200 yards rushing and scored three total touchdowns.
Greenland extended its lead to 54-22 after Thomas Slack intercepted McLaughlin and later scored on a five-yard run, but the Bearkatz wouldn’t go down without a fight.
Greenland (2-2) will return to action next week at Yellville-Summit, and Melbourne will host the Green Forest Tigers.