The Tazewell football team won the time of possession battle on Saturday, but the Bulldogs lost the war.
While Tazewell ran many more scrimmage plays than Colonial Heights, the Colonials made more big plays. Ricardo Trinidad raced in from 39-yards out for the Colonials first touchdown of the day. Za’marion Mason scored from 64-yards out in the second half for the Colonials.
The game, however, was much closer than the final margin of victory would suggest. Colonial Heights final touchdown came with two minutes left in the game, when Trinidad sprinted into the end zone from 16-yards out for his second touchdown of the game.
“Frustrating afternoon,” Tazewell head coach J’me Harris said. “They made a few more plays than we did today and they deserved to win the football game. Defensively, I thought we played well for most of the day, but we just were not able to limit their explosive plays.”
Cassius Harris, shifting from wide receiver to QB, was making his first start at quarterback for the Bulldogs. Harris completed 2 of 9 passes for 40 yards and an interception. His 33-yard completion to Logan McDonald setup the Bulldogs only touchdown of the day. Kaizon Taylor scored on a one-yard touchdown run with seconds left in the first half to cut the Colonials lead to 8-6 at halftime.
“We were limited in what we could do offensively today,” Harris said. “He (Cassius Harris) struggled with some of his reads today, and those things are part of becoming a quarterback and learning. We’ll look at the film and see if we need to go in a different direction next week.”
Harris led the Bulldogs ground attack with 28 carries for 92 yards. Taylor added 14 carries for 46 yards and the Bulldogs lone touchdown. Overall, the Bulldogs rushed the ball 46 times for 138 yards.
“Our inability to throw the football today put a lot of pressure on our offensive line,” Harris said.
The Colonials’ defense, with linebackers Ricardo Trinidad, Isaiah Taylor, and Daviyon Warner did its job of keeping Tazewell’s offense in check for most of the game.
Tazewell had 59 snaps from scrimmage. Colonial Heights ran only 37 scrimmage plays. Tazewell averaged 3.02 yards per play while the Colonials averaged 6.38 yards per play.
The Bulldogs also lost the turnover battle 2-0.
Next up for the Bulldogs (1-2) is a Homecoming game against John Battle. The Trojans are coming off a 19-6 victory of Holston.
