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Chiefs march past Brooks
Published November 7, 2009
Teams are learning the hard way that you shouldn't kick to Denzel Bynum.
After Brooks scored to take a 19-14 lead, the North Jackson junior returned the ensuing kickoff 84 yards for the go-ahead touchdown with 3:50 left in the third quarter.
The play opened the floodgates for North Jackson, which scored 22 unanswered points en route to a 36-19 victory over No. 10-ranked Brooks in the opening round of the Class 4A Playoffs Friday night in Killen.
The win moved the Chiefs (8-3) into a second round game next week at No. 8 Guntersville, which beat Rogers 28-6 in Round 1.
As for Bynum, it was the third straight game that the former Class 4A state 100-meter dash champion returned a kickoff for a score.
"I saw the hole and knew if I could get through it I'd score," Bynum said.
Brooks coach Jerry Hill said Bynum's TD return was no doubt the play of the game.
"That was a game changer," Hill said. "We had momentum and it got taken away in the blink of an eye."
The win was North Jackson's first in three tries at Brooks' E.D. Redding Stadium.
It was also a sweet victory for a team that many people wrote off after a stretch in which it lost three of four games midway through the regular season.
"After we lost at Plainview (in Week 8), people were kicking sand on us," said North Jackson coach Shawn Peek. "They'd left us for dead. I'm just so proud of our guys. I knew if we could just get our confidence back we could make some noise."
Following his kick return, Bynum came up with an interception — one of three by the Chiefs — to set up North Jackson's next score, a 1-yard touchdown run by Montel Hale with 11:32 to play that gave the Chiefs a 28-19 lead.
Two plays later, Brandon Smith intercepted another Brooks pass and the drive that followed produced Hale's 14-yard TD run — which he set up with a 44-yard catch-and-run on a third-and-five play — and a Will Richard-to-Kahne Cooper two-point conversion pass that gave North Jackson a comfortable 17-point advantage with 8:59 to play.
Hale ran for all 57 of his yards in the second half and also added 50 receiving yards on three catches.
Richard completed 14 of 23 passes for 201 yards, while Jovani Taylor made five catches for 45 yards and Cooper three for 30.
Alex Mitchell was 19-of-38 passing for 211 yards for Brooks (8-3), which outgained North Jackson 357-292.
But the Chiefs made up the difference by forcing turnovers and making plays on special teams.
Along with Bynum's kickoff return, the Chiefs got a touchdown after Brooks had a bad snap on a punt attempt that gave North Jackson good field position in the third quarter. "We thought special teams was an area where we had an advantage," Peek said.
Brooks opened the scoring with a 25-yard touchdown pass from Matthew Scott to Austin Hill on a trick play midway through the first quarter. North Jackson tied the game at 7-all three minutes later with a 1-yard TD run by Richard and the first of Cesar Diaz's four PATs.
Brooks held a 13-7 halftime lead thanks to Scott's 40-yard TD catch from Mitchell, but North Jackson went in front 14-13 when Bynum ran 14 yards on a reverse at the 8:35 mark of the third period. Another Mitchell-to-Scott TD pass (19 yards) gave Brooks the lead momentarily before Bynum returned the ensuing kickoff for a score.
Bynum finished with five tackles and an interception on defense and had two catches for 66 yards on offense. Austin Blevins and Zach Hammontree paced the North Jackson defense with 10 tackles. Blevins also had an interception.
Next up for the Chiefs is a rematch with Guntersville, which came to Stevenson in Week 7 and overcame a 23-7 deficit to beat North Jackson 30-23.
"Everybody got down on us after that, but we stuck together as a team and learned from the bad," Bynum said. "We're glad to get another shot at them."
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