Shaw loses a tough one in Bedford, 26-19

This game recap is brought to you by “The Book Shelf LLC” in which the (3-4)Shaw Cardinals matched up against the (6-1)Bedford which was Bedford’s last home game of the season. Last week Bedford took their first lost of the season against Cleveland Height’s 34-26. Shaw as well took a tough loss to Maple Heights 21-12 last week.

In tonight’s rivalry matchup there was a lot of defensive stops as well as a lot of trash talking between the two teams. Bedford’ s senior quarterback Arshaun Boone did not start the game due to an injury he sustained late in the game last week against Cleveland Heights. In place of Boone Head coach Sean Williams started Junior Kevin Epps.

With that being said Bedford Bearcats started the game with the ball and was able to produce two runs from the line of scrimmage that went for 22 yards by Davion Johnson and then another 20 yard run by Jaden Smith before quarterback turned the ball over with an interception by Shaw’s Marvonte Ramsey.

Shaw’s offense was forced to punt the ball back to Bedford on their first drive of the game, but Shaw’s defense wasn’t allowing Bedford to drive the ball either so the results to the Bearcat’s drive was a punt giving the ball back to Shaw.

But Shaw’s next drive was the same result as the first drive but on this punt Bedford’s Davion Johnson muffled the punt and Shaw recovered the ball Bedford’s 25 yard line. In three plays Shaw scored the first touchdown of the game with a 4 yard rushing from Junior quarterback Alejandro Washington, but it was the 11 yard gain from Marvonte Ramsey and 9 yard run from Senior London Patton who put them in position to score, taking a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.

On the next kickoff Bedford’s Davion Johnson  redeemed himself and had a 90 yard kickoff return for a touchdown but they missed the extra point all before time expired in the first quarter bringing the score now entering the second quarter 7-6, Shaw on top.

The first two series both ways resulted in punts by Shaw and Bedford, but Shaw’s London Patton found his way into the end zone with a touchdown after a 55 yard rush from scrimmage taking a 13-6 lead over Bedford early in the 2nd quarter.

For the early part of the game Bedford’s offense struggled to move the ball so Coach Williams decided to enter Senior quarterback Arshaun Boone into the game with 8:45 remaining in the 2nd quarter, and the Bedford fans definitely knew once the substitution was made because the fans definitely cheered as he came off the sidelines.

Bedford ran the ball play after play their next drive with no completed passes ending the drive with a 5 yard rushing touchdown from Senior Tishawn Gunter and Bedford was successful on the extra-point conversion evening the score to 13-13 with 3:04 left in the half.

Like majority of this first half defenses were here tonight to make plays, the Bearcats were out to make a big play before half and that’s exactly what happened because they forced a fumble by Shaw’s quarterback Alejandro Washington which was recovered and returned by the Bearcat’s Junior defensive end Bernard Melton for a touchdown bringing the lead Bedford’s way 19-13 but missing the extra-point conversion.

Coming out the second half with the ball Shaw put together a successful series driving down field which led to a 1 yard rushing touchdown by Shaw’s Alejandro Washington. But that was the only score of the quarter because there were multiple punts from both teams throughout the 3rd quarter.

Starting the 4th quarter Bedford was punting the ball away to Shaw and the returner muffled the ball on the return and Bedford recovered the ball on Shaw’s 21 yard line. This allowed the Bearcat’s Arshaun Boone to throw a 12 yard touchdown to Davion Johnson taking a 26-19 lead in the 4th quarter with 8:18 on the clock.

This was just a bad 4th quarter for Shaw because their last three possessions all ended with turnovers from quarterback Alejandro Washington, 2 fumbles and 1 interception and this allowed Bedford to seal the win for this Lake Erie League matchup.

Next week Shaw now with a 3-5 record will be hosting Cleveland Heights for their final home game of the season.

Bedford will be traveling to Lorain next week with a 7-1 record with hopes of playing in the postseason.