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Timber Creek Football Shuts Out Cumberland in Sloppy Opener

The Chargers defense forces five Cumberland turnovers while Khalil Pierce runs for 90 yards and Calvin Lowe tosses two touchdown passes to lead offense.

In a game that featured a ton of sloppy play with nearly 100 combined yards of penalties and six combined turnovers, five by Cumberland, managed to pull out a win in their home opener, defeating the division-rival Colts 19-0.

The Chargers showed a little bit of rust in their first game of the regular season, but were able to move the ball well with the running game and take advantage of offensive miscues by Cumberland. The Colts had problems under center, with quarterback Steven Garron fumbling the snap six times in the game and another snap toward the end of the first half going over the head of Cumberland punter Rian Lamanteer.

“I tried to put a lot of pressure on the center,” Chargers defensive tackle Greg Webb said.

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It worked.

“When we finish practice and head off to the locker room, the center and the quarterback will be taking exchanges 5 yards at a time,” Cumberland coach Tom Lake said about fixing the team's snap problems. “They will be taking an extra 300 snaps this week.”

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When Garron did have his hands on the ball, he was pressured constantly by the Chargers' defensive line. Timber Creek sacked Garron a total of five times in the game and forced him out of the pocket a number of other times. Defensive end Dajuan Drennon led the way for the Chargers with two sacks.

“They were starting off with a tight end on my side and they were double-teaming me,” said Dreenon. “When they took him out, I was just rushing for the quarterback.”

“(Garron) has a great arm, a great eye,” said Lake. “He forced one to try and make a play that got picked, he knew that as soon as he released it. But even the ones that he passed tonight he was under duress.”

The Chargers got a great game on the ground from Khalil Pierce, who was on the field much of the game playing both running back and defensive back. Despite this, he still managed to gain 90 yards on 10 carries in the game. Timber Creek was able to control the game at the line of scrimmage, opening up holes for Pierce throughout the night.

Toward the end of the game, running back Kevin Potter got more carries to take the load off of Pierce. Potter rose to the occasion, gaining 29 yards, 22 of those in the fourth quarter. Potter also scored a 2-yard touchdown in the fourth to make the score 19-0.

“At the end of the game, we went to (Potter) to kind of take the load of guys,” said Timber Creek coach Rob Hinson. “He's probably one of the top five or six sprinters in the state of New Jersey and as the season progresses, he's probably going to become more and more important to us as a running back.”

Timber Creek was able to move the ball despite a poor passing day by Calvin Lowe at quarterback. Lowe completed just 8 of 21 passes for 89 yards. Two of those eight completions did go for touchdowns, however. Lowe threw a 12-yard touchdown pass on a screen pass to Pierce in the first quarter to open up a 6-0 Charger lead. Later in the second quarter, Lowe found Dreenon in the corner of the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown grab.

“We worked hard on doing a good job with the secondary,” said Lake. “We need to close a little more on the shorter patterns, but we knew that they had some guys with speed, probably a little more than us. So we had to do some creative things.”

“I think he may have been pressing it a little too much tonight,” said Hinson. “It just wasn't his night throwing the ball.”

Despite pulling out the win, Timber Creek didn't play to its full capability. They had eight penalties totaling 70 yards in the game and had numerous missed tackles in the open field, especially in the second half.

“I liked the pressure we were doing, but we weren't making plays,” said Hinson. “We had guys on three or four plays getting off their blocks and then missing. The balls on the ground and we're not recovering.”

The Chargers will need to rectify those mistakes before next week, as they will take on defending Royal Division champion Delsea High School on Friday at home. Delsea is considered one of the top teams in South Jersey and will present a huge challenge to the Chargers.

“We're going to practice our tails off, you better believe it,” said Hinson. “From a physical standpoint, we can play with anybody around. It's just a matter of making plays when we need to and eliminating those mistakes. That was kind of the disappointing thing about tonight.”

Friday's game against Delsea will start at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 16. Check back here with GT Patch for more coverage of Timber Creek football.  

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