Portageville gets past scrappy Charleston 30-16

Charleston's Claude Armstrong tries to outrun Portageville's Tevin Walker (21) and Hunter Ivie (38) on a kickoff in second half Friday night in Charleston. Brent Shipman, Staff

CHARLESTON -- What a difference nine seconds can make.

Tied at 16-16 in the closing seconds of the third quarter against Charleston, visiting Portageville strung together 14 points in a nine second span during the final 13 seconds of the quarter, holding to win 30-16 at the Bluejays homecoming.

"I think we came in underestimating them," the Bulldogs Caden Robbins said. "Half time we just pulled together and realized they were here to play too.

"We definitely got momentum (during those drives) and we just rode it out."

Portageville's Fred Treadwell was responsible for all 16 points in the rally, setting up the first touchdown with a 12-yard run, before punching it in from the one on the ensuing play with 12.4 seconds left in the quarter.

Following a failed two-point-conversion and kickoff to Charleston, the Bulldogs quickly found themselves back in possession after a fumbled Bluejays snap on the first play of the drive leaving Portageville with the ball on Charleston's 15.

On the very next play, Treadwell would see his number called once again, reaching pay dirt before bringing the ball back across the goal line for the 2-point conversion.

With the Bluejay offense forced to play catch up in the fourth, Portageville's defense held Charleston to mostly four-and-outs in securing the 30-14 win.

"It didn't look that good, but we got through it," Portageville's Tevin Walker said. "We pulled together in the end and got the win."

Struggling to finish drives early, Portageville was left trailing 13-8 entering the second half. Capitalizing on turnover's, Charleston was able to take an early 7-0 lead when, at the end of the first, Maurice Moore recovered a Portageville fumble deep in Bulldogs territory, returning it 85 yards for the score.

After Portageville responded with a 61-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter, followed by a successful 2-point conversion to make it 8-7, Charleston would retake the lead going in to the half.

On fourth-and-short at Portageville's 38-yard line, Bluejays' quarterback Jamaul Gray took off just looking for a first down to extend the drive.

Several missed tackles and 38 yards later, however, Gray found himself in the end zone to give Charleston the 13-8 lead.

"That Gray kid is a phenomenal athlete," Portageville coach Ronnie Jones said. "I know there's a couple of highlight films there where six kids had shot at him and I don't even think they touched him."

Setting up the events late in the third, Bulldogs quarterback Robbins connected with Walker for a 76-yard score before Treadwell's 2-point run gave Portageville the 16-13 lead.

With a little under a minute left in the quarter, Bluejays' kicker Ethan Browning tied things back up with a 37-yard field goal setting the above mentioned Bulldogs run.

Though happy to escape with the win, Jones wished his team had come out a little stronger.

"I don't know what the deal was," Jones said. "We came in here and we felt like we had a pretty good game plan. Not taking anything away from Charleston, they played awful well early. We kept shooting ourself in the foot.

"We couldn't get anything going and it seemed like about the time we got something going we'd have a key play out of place because of an injury or those kinds of things. We finally got our substitution system down right and it work out for us later on."

Accounting for a huge chunk of the Bulldogs offense, Treadwell was easily the leader of the Bulldogs' ground game.

Rushing for 189 yards on 20 carries, Treadwell came away with three touchdowns and two 2-point conversions for 22 total points.

"He's coming in to his own right now," Jones said of Treadwell. "He's going to be a pretty good athlete before it's all said and done. Fred joined us late last year and the thing is he's come to campus working extremely hard.

"He's becoming a leader for us and it's pretty obvious that we got in to situations tonight where we called his number a lot."

As for Charleston, Gray was the Bluejays leader with 20 carries for 126 yards on the ground while passing for 92 yards.

Bluejay's head coach Brett Blackman emphasized execution if Charleston is to pull out ball games like these.

"I know the kids are frustrated and I'm frustrated," he said. "But we're going to have to eliminate mistakes so we can stay in these ball games. That's what the bottom line is."

First Quarter

C -- Maurice Moore 85 fumble recovery (Ethan Browning kick good), 36.3 sec

Second Quarter

P -- Fred Treadwell 61 run (Caden Robbins run good), 11:48

C -- Jamaul Gray 38 run (2-point no good), 3:37

Third Quarter

P -- Tevin Walker 75 pass from Robbins ( Treadwell run good), 2:40

C -- Browning 37 field goal, 55.5 sec

P -- Treadwell 1 run (2-point no good), 12.4 sec

P -- Treadwell 15 run (Treadwell run good), 3.9 sec

TEAM STATISTICS

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing

Portageville -- Fred Treadwell 20-189, Dominique Walker 6-12, Caden Robbins 7-3, Issac Ray 1-(-4), Denzel Simmons 2-0, Daniel Allen 1-(-6).

Charleston -- Jamaul Gray 20-126, Kamari Allmon 3-14, Claude Armstrong 9-20, Maurice Moore 4-16, Krushon Scott 2-2.

Passing

Portageville -- Caden Robbins 2-6-1 77, Mason Kellams 0-1-0 0. Charleston -- Jamaul Gray 5-1151 122, Mike Hull 0-1-0 0.

Receiving

Portageville -- Issac Ray 1-1, Tevin Walker 1-76. Charleston -- Sumner Foster 1-56, Maurice Moore 2-37, Jerry Carter 2-29.