Enterprise wins game full of penalties

By By Rocky Higginbotham/special to The Star
August 31, 2002
UNION The marathon first half between homestanding Union and Enterprise was dominated more by yellow handkerchiefs than anything else.
But when given a window of opportunity at the beginning of the second half, the visiting Bulldogs took full advantage.
With an average starting field position of the Union 42, Enterprise scored touchdowns on its first four second-half possessions and held off the Yellowjackets 33-22 in front of a packed house at Union's newly-remodeled stadium.
Gartman was right.
A dead-ball personal foul call to end the first half was accessed to Enterprise on the second-half kickoff; then another penalty forced the Bulldogs to kick from their own 20.
But Union didn't take advantage, and Enterprise scored on its next four possessions including 19 unanswered points that turned an 8-7 deficit into a 26-8 lead.
Trailing 8-7, Enterprise got a 37-yard touchdown pass from Adam Simpson to Patrick McLaughlin. A muff on the PAT left it a 13-8 game, but the Bulldogs never trailed again.
After a blocked punt gave Enterprise the ball just 18 yards from paydirt, Simpson did the honors himself on a keeper for the Bulldogs' next score. After being hit, he dove for the end zone to avoid going out of bounds, and gave Enterprise a 19-8 lead with 7:59 left in the third.
A 26-yard burst from Colter Cannington set up the next score, a 1-yard keeper by Simpson. Michael Swancey's PAT kick made it 26-8.
Union struck back with a 37-yard touchdown pass from Quincy Patrick to Derrick Harris and a two-point conversion run by Anthony Johnson to make it 26-16. The Jackets also had a 5-yard touchdown run by Johnson with 7:57 left but sandwiched in between Union's last two scores was a 48-yard touchdown run by Zeb Swain.
Swain finished with 122 yards on seven carries to pace Enterprise, which had 293 yards of total offense. Cannington finished with 53 yards on nine carries and Simpson had 44 yards and three touchdowns on six carries. The first TD was a 15-yard keeper in the first quarter, one which was followed by a kick by Swancey for a 7-0 lead.
Union's first touchdown accounted for 86 of the Jackets' 117 first-half yards. On a third-and-20 draw play from Union's own 14, Johnson broke loose and outraced defenders for an 86-yard touchdown run. Lando Blalock bulled his way into the end zone for a two-point conversion that made it 8-7.
Johnson finished with 179 yards and two scores on 18 carries, while Harris caught four passes for 101 yards and one TD. After Patrick missed on his first 13 attempts, he hit four of the next five, all of them to Harris.
John Arrington led Enterprise with eight tackles, while Swain had six tackles, a blocked punt and two of the Bulldogs' four sacks.
Enterprise hosts South Leake Thursday, while Union is at West Lauderdale next Friday.