NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The Apprentice School football team bounced back with a 34-13 win over Thaddeus Stevens Saturday afternoon, using a great defensive performance to get the win.
The Builders held the Bulldogs to just 67 first half yards as the offense jumped out to a 20-0 lead by the intermission. Jasiah Beacham kept his hot start to the season going with the opening score on a 7-yard catch from Grant Swanger at the 9:20 mark of the first quarter. Both teams' offenses struggled until the Builders got the ball back early in the second quarter and put together a 12 play, 81-yard drive that was capped by Ty Taylor's first touchdown in college, a 1-yard plunge to stretch the lead to 13-0.
Apprentice scored on their next drive on a five play drive that saw Swanger, a Chesapeake native, find Norfolk native T.K. Petty for a 10-yard touchdown to get to the halftime score. The Bulldogs responded after halftime, taking the opening kickoff and putting together a 14 play, 75-yard drive that took 9:14 off the clock for TSCT to get a touchdown and cut the lead to 20-6.
The Builders answered just over a minute later as Petty slipped behind the Bulldog secondary for a 63-yard touchdown catch to push the lead back to 21. Swanger then found Makegan Piorkowski on the next Apprentice drive in the back of the endzone for a 7-yard touchdown to take a 34-6 lead. Thaddeus Stevens scored with four minutes left in the game to get to the final score.
Apprentice's defense came up with 10 tackles for loss and three sacks on the day. They also got an interception from Syncere Hawkins and forced two fumbles. Kasim Drumgole had the play of the game defensively as he forced a fumble after coming in unblocked to the quarterback for a strip sack.
Petty finished with 123 receiving yards on just three catches. Swanger finished 16-of-24 for 228 yards and four touchdowns.
Builders bounce back in 34-13 win over Thaddeus Stevens
The Builder defense held the Bulldogs to just 67 first half yards as the offense jumped out to a 20-0 lead by the intermission.