Dougherty football tops Dooly County in warm up for Westover

ALBANY — The Dougherty Trojans started slow Thursday night but woke up in the second quarter with two big pass plays from junior wide receiver Bralyen Still and took over the preseason scrimmage with a 28-14 win over a feisty Dooly County team Thursday night at Hugh Mills Stadium.

“We definitely had those first game jitters to start,” said Dougherty head coach Johnny Gilbert. “It was the first time in the stadium this year. We dropped too many passes. We didn’t do a good job tackling on defense. But we saw things get a little better as the game progressed.”

The Bobcats from Dooly County jumped on the board first in their second possession of the scrimmage. The Trojans, led by senior quarterback Kam Davis, responded on their next possession. The Trojans drove down the field and scored on a four-yard pass from Davis to Keion Covin.

The Bobcats were driving again when sophomore defensive back Jayden Owens picked off a Bobcat pass near the 10-yard line and returned it down the field to the 20-yard line.

A few plays later, sophomore running back Breyland King blew into the end zone for another Trojan touchdown. The kick after gave the Trojans a 14-6 advantage.

The Bobcats responded with another drive against Dougherty’s defense and tied the game with a touchdown and two-point conversion.

The Trojan coaches had instructed Davis not to run the football during the scrimmage and use only his passing to get the offense going. The idea was to make sure Davis didn’t get injured before the season began and to allow other Trojans to get experience running the ball and making the important plays.

Junior wide receiver Braylen Still did that.

Davis threw a sideline pass out to Still early in the second quarter and the ball popped out of Still’s hands and dropped to the ground. Davis threw to Still again on the next play and found Still open in the flats and Still took the ball to the end zone for a 72-yard pass play to give Dougherty the lead for good.

On the next possession Davis hit Still again — this time for a 50-yard touchdown pass play. And on a drive late in the third quarter, Davis threw to Still in the corner of the end zone for another attempt.

Still dove for the ball which just went past his fingertips and hit the ground hard. Still took a few seconds to get up and then raised his hand to leave the game.

“Braylen is ok,” said Gilbert. “That was their last series to play anyway. But we stretched him out and let him recover. He is fine. Braylen works really hard. He is a real competitor and is doing an excellent job and is going to be a big factor for us this season.”

Instead of Still getting the final touchdown pass, Covin got his second touchdown of the scrimmage on a 20-yard pass from Davis.

“We believe Kam is worth 14 to 21 points a game,” the coach said. “We know what Kam can do and we didn’t want to risk him in a scrimmage. We also wanted to give the other guys a chance to make the plays. That was the scrimmage was about.”

On defense the Trojans got better in the second quarter as well, but Gilbert was still looking for better wrapping up and more pressure on the quarterback.

“This was a no-touch game for the quarterback,” he said. “I think maybe our pass rush was not as aggressive because they knew they couldn’t hit the quarterback. I didn’t see us going after him as hard as they should have but I think that is why.”

The younger plays took over in the second half and neither team put points on the board, but Gilbert liked what he saw from the second team.

“I thought David Burgess (freshman quarterback) did an excellent job managing the offense,” said Gilbert. “He threw the ball well and made some good runs. I liked the way he handled himself and the offense. Jason Armstrong (sophomore running back) showed his talents. He is going to be getting some of those varsity reps soon. He ran really well.”

The Trojans will open the season Friday night in Hugh Mills Stadium against crosstown rival Westover in the “Hamp Smith Classic.” Last year the Trojans won a thrilling game against their rivals by a 21-14 final.

By Joe WhitfieldJoeWhitfield[email protected]