In a rematch of both their regular season meeting and of their 2014 postseason meeting, the Glenvar Highlanders scored their third consecutive victory over the Giles Spartans with a 19-7 triumph at home in second round postseason action.
Despite trailing 7-0 in the contest after the game's first play, the Highlanders defense controlled the game the rest of the way out while their offense pieced together enough scores for the defending state champions to advance to the regional semifinals.
The victory was the twelfth this season for Glenvar and their seventeenth in a row while Giles saw their season come to a close with a 10-2 mark.
Click here for photo gallery of the game
SCORING SUMMARY
First Quarter
Giles (11:43), KO return 74 yards Mann, PAT Riley, 7-0
Glenvar (9:24), Clifford to Brown 7 yards, PAT Mullins 7-7
Second Quarter
No scoring
Third Quarter
Glenvar (8:00), Manns 2 yards, PAT no good, 13-7
Fourth Quarter
Glenvar (11:47), Manns 54 yards, two-point failed 19-7
KEYS TO VICTORY
Answer A Score With A Score
Glenvar won the opening toss and deferred leading to Giles receiving the ball first and the Spartans made something happen right out of the gates. Picking up a dribbling kickoff at his own 26-yard line, returner Brian Mann made a quick cut to the right, broke an arm tackle or two and found room up the Highlanders sideline where he outraced potential tacklers for a 74-yard touchdown putting his team on top just one play into the ball game.
With momentum on their side, the Spartans forced Glenvar to start their first drive of the contest from their own 28-yard line, but the Highlanders wasted no time getting a big play of their own as quarterback Zack Clifford found wideout Zack Clifford behind the Giles secondary off a play-action pass for a 57-yard completion down to the Spartans' 15-yard line. A few plays later, facing third-and-two from the seven, Clifford sprinted to his left and found senior Dustin Brown in front of him on a flood route for a 7-yard scoring strike tying the game almost as quickly as Giles had taken the lead.
The fight was on from there.
Defensive Stops
On the next two Giles' possessions, the Spartans were stopped inside Glenvar territory, once at the 35-yard line and the other at the 31-yard line as the Highlanders defense was bending some, but not breaking.
Unfortunately for Glenvar fans, their own offense was stalling in enemy territory as well getting stopped on downs at the Spartans' 3-yard line on one drive and at the Giles' 22 on the next.
Giles took a shot at carrying a lead into halftime as they lined up for a 41-yard field goal on the last play of the first half, but penetration in the middle of the line and a slip by the Giles kicker led to the attempt being blocked and the teams heading to the locker rooms squared up at seven apiece.
Twice more in the third quarter, Giles entered Glenvar's side of the field, but the Highlanders defense shut down both possessions; the first ending with a fourth down stop at the 41-yard line and the second by forcing a punt from the 36-yard line.
The Spartans would have the ball for two more series in the fourth quarter and they didn't have any more luck against the Glenvar D then either as the Highlanders stuffed a fourth down run on their own 34-yard line on one possession and ended the Spartans' comeback hopes with an Elliot Stigal interception with under three minutes to play.
All in all, after scoring on the game's opening kickoff, Giles had the ball eight times on the night, advanced into Glenvar territory six times, and got zero points out of those drives.
Slight Adjustments
Glenvar defense was doing their part keeping Giles out of the end zone, the Highlanders' offense was having the same type of trouble against the Spartans defense in the first half after scoring on their first drive to tie the contest.
In their other three first half possessions (besides the scoring drive), the Highlanders were stopped on downs in Spartans' terrority twice and a Brian Mann inteception on his own side of the field ended the other.
Glenvar was having success with their passing game, but couldn't get much down on the ground in the first half. However, they clearly made the rushing attack a priority at the half because they opened the third quarter getting the ball to tailback Darryl Manns early and often.
That helped open up things in the passing game even more as Clifford hit Stigall on a paly-action pass of 31 yards to the Giles' 15 on their first drive and Manns cleaned it up from there with a 12-yard run to the Spartans' 3-yard line and a scoring dive from two yards out to push the Glenvar lead to 13-7 with eight minutes to play in the third.
They carried that six-point advantage into the fourth quarter then all but salted the game away on the first play of the final stanza when Manns ducked behind a pulling lineman to the right and found a crease and an out for a 54-yard dash, his second touchdown of the night to extend the lead to 19-7 and close out the scoring in the game.
Click here for post-game audio with Glenvar head coach Kevin Clifford
PLAYERS OF THE GAME
Elliot Stigall, WR, Glenvar
Though he didn't find the end zone himself, the senior wide receiver set up two of Glenvar's three touchdowns with long receptions, a 57-yarder in the first quarter and a 31-yarder in the third, making a couple of diving, laid out receptions along the way. On the night, Stigall hauled in six passes for 169 yards and picked off a pass from the defensive side of the ball.
Darryl Manns, RB, Glenvar
Kept pretty quiet in the first half, the Highlanders tailback turned things up in the second rushing for 157 of his 186 yards and scoring both of his team's touchdowns in the second half accounting for both the winning score and the game-sealer.
Brian Mann, RB, Giles
The senior most definitely went out on his shield as he rushed for 110 yards on 23 carries for the Spartans accounting for a vast majority of their 144 total yards. Along with scoring the team's only touchdown on the game-opening kick return, he also picked off a pass in the second quarter while on defense.
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