Tyler Bruce proved why he is ranked ninth in the state in passing as he led the Tri-West Bruins 42-0 win over the Cloverdale Clovers

Tuesday, November 1, 2005

Tyler Bruce proved why he is ranked ninth in the state in passing as he led the Tri-West Bruins 42-0 win over the Cloverdale Clovers.

Tri-West defeated Cloverdale Friday in the second round of the Class 2A Sectional 45 football tournament.

The Bruins gathered a total of 437 yards against the Clovers, while Cloverdale was only able to tally 113 total yards.

The Bruins scored in the first three minutes of the game, and that was the beginning of the end for the Clovers. Tri-West scored one other touchdown in the first quarter and one in the second. In the third quarter, Tri-West put up 21 unanswered points and that's all it would need to secure the win.

Even though Tri-West scored 42 points, the Bruins had to work for every one of them. The Clovers' defense stepped it up in the second and fourth quarters and showed Tri-West how to hit. Christian Cheatham rocked Tyler Thompson of Tri-West on two different occasions in the back field to slow down the Bruins' passing game.

The Clovers were able to hold Bruce to only 120 passing yards Friday. That is an accomplishment within itself, considering he has been averaging more than 200 yards a game all season long.

"Our defense played well tonight and our defensive backs really played well in the backfield," CHS coach Jamie Steffy said. "The defensive backs made strides tonight that we were hoping that they would have made earlier in the season, but hey, it's a start for next season."

The Clovers were only two plays away from going into halftime being down 7-0 instead of 21-0.

"Our defense busted up twice on us in the first half and if it had not busted, we would have only been down seven points instead of the 21 we were," Steffy said.

The Clovers finished the season with a record of 5-6 and Steffy said goodbye to four seniors at the end of the night.

"I have to give credit to my four seniors. They really did a lot for me and this team in the past four years and they really loved this game" Steffy said. "They were great football players, but most of all they were great people and that's what counts."

At Cloverdale

Tri-West 14 7 21 0 -- 42

Cloverdale 0 0 0 0 -- 0

First Quarter

TW -- Bruce 33 yd pass to Alexander (Robertson kick) 9:23

TW -- Graves 3 yd run (Robertson kick) 1:17

Second Quarter

TW -- Bruce 31 yd pass to Alexander (Robertson kick) :02

Third Quarter

TW -- Graves 19 yd run (Robertson Kick) 6:20

TW -- Bruce 13 yd pass to Rutherford (Robertson kick) 1:46

TW -- Berry 1 yd run (Robertson kick) :49

Team Statistics

First downs -- CL (4), TW (15)

Fumbles/Recovered -- CL 2-1, TW 0-0

Total Rushing -- CL 63, TW 317

Total Passing -- CL 50, TW 120

Total Yards -- CL 113, TW 437

Individual Statistics

Passing

CL (2-14-50-0-1) -- Haltom 2-14, 50, 0 TD, 1 Int.

TW(6-14-120-3-1) -- Bruce 6-14, 120, 3 TD, 1 Int.

Receiving

CL -- Cheatham 2-50

TW -- Alexander 3-88, 2 TD, Rutherford 3-32, 1 TD

Rushing

CL (29-63-0) Smith 4-15, Morgan 8-23, Mescall 4-3, Dayhuff 2-8, Haltom 2-(-3), Warner 5-23, Schroer 2-4, Fielden 2-2

TW (32-317-3) Graves 15-132, 2 TD, Alexander 1-13, Bruce 5-41, Berry 3-20, 1 TD, Pugliese 3-24, Peterman 2-10, Terell 3-3

Cloverdale ended the season at 5-6.

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