BY ANTHONY STEVENS
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT
CASTLEWOOD – Sometimes you can win the battle and lose the war. That wasn’t the case for senior Ryan Phillips and the Castlewood Blue Devils. Phillips set a Castlewood High School single game rushing record with 323-yards on the ground as the Blue Devils defeated Coeburn 49-29 in Cumberland District football at White Stadium.
“I knew I only had one more chance so I gave it all I had tonight,” Phillips said. “We wanted to go out with a win. My offensive line has been blocking great for me the entire year and (fullback) Casey Phillips just unloads on people every play.”
Only five yards separated Ryan Phillips and Coeburn running back Shane Bright from the CD rushing lead coming into the contest. Both the workhorses did nothing to disappoint the crowd at the final game for both teams. Phillips took the title, but Bright was stellar with 266 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
“We knew Shane and Ryan would have a toe-to-toe tonight,” Coeburn coach Greg Mullins said. “They both played hard. We’ve told the kids for two weeks that one hit won’t bring him down. He runs the football a lot like Bright does. Low to the ground, one hit won’t bring them down, and they fight for every yard. They went at it.”
Phillips had no trouble finding the end zone, scoring six of Castlewood’s seven touchdowns.
“Ryan runs the football hard,” Castlewood coach David Scammell said. “They can stack eight or nine guys in the box, stunt, but he always seems to break the tackle to get himself in open field.
Blue Devil quarterback Corey Davis benefitted from Coeburn’s defense keying on Phillips. Davis also had a big game rushing for 96-yards on nine carries. Davis was also 5-of-8 passing, with an 8-yard TD pass to Devin Puckett. Castlewood amassed 519-yards of total offense.
Coeburn (4-6, 3-3) had 351-yards of total offense. Quarterback Jon Dean had a 19-yard TD pass to Tra Nixon. Nixon hauled in five passes for 81-yards.
For the third consecutive year Castlewood finished with a 7-3 record. The Blue Devils narrowly missed the Division 1 playoffs.
Coeburn 14 0 0 15—29
Castlewood 14 14 7 14—49
Scoring Summary
COE—Bright 3 run (Bright kick)
CAS—R. Phillips 8 run (kick failed)
CAS—R. Phillips 12 run (C. Phillips pass from Davis)
COE—Bright 46 run (Bright kick)
CAS—Puckett 8 pass from Davis (C. Phillips kick)
CAS—R. Phillips 2 run (C. Phillips kick)
CAS—R. Phillips 5 run (C. Phillips kick)
CAS—R. Phillips 1 run (C. Phillips kick)
COE—Nixon 19 pass from Dean (Bright kick)
CAS—R. Phillips 22 run (C. Phillips kick)
COE—Bright 1 run (Meade pass from Dean)
Team Stats
First Downs: COE 16, CAS 24; Rushes-Yards: COE 34-243, CAS 56-452; Passing Yards: COE 108, CAS 67; Comp-Att-Int: COE 7-14-0, CAS 5-8-1; Fumbles-Lost: COE 3-1, CAS 3-0; Penalties-Yards: COE 6-50, CAS 3-30; Punts-Average: COE 4-38.8, CAS 1-28.
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