BARTOW BURIES FORT MEADE

FORT MEADE — The Bartow Yellow Jackets got a glimpse of their future Friday night, and they liked what they saw Attempting to shake things up a bit, first-year coach Ray Tiller started freshman Da’zarrion Tollie at quarterback, which sparked Bartow to its first win of the season, an 18-3 triumph over rival Fort Meade. It was the Yellow Jackets’ second straight win against the Miners. The move also tapped into a little Bartow football lore. Tollie is the nephew of Shandrin “Sleepy” Tollie, who was the quarterback of the Yellow Jackets’ 1996 state championship team. “We had an injury, and opened the (quarterback) competition up and we told them they would battle it out, and either a freshman or a senior, we needed a spark, Tiller said. “Tollie did some good things in practice, and we felt the need to go with him.” With his uncle having his own nickname, perhaps his teammates might want to start calling their new quarterback “shoeless.” “Right before the game he came up to us and said ‘Coach, I’m really, really nervous.’ He was so nervous, he left his cleets at the school,” Tiller said. An 80-yard pass play to wide out Daniel Everett, who out jumped a couple of Miners defenders in front of the Fort Meade bench, helped set up a 1-yard Maurice Bell touchdown run with 11:04 to go in the fourth. Bell opened the scoring late in the first on a superior individual effort, taking a screen pass 26 yards to the end zone, breaking four or five tackles along the way. Bartow (1-2) put the game away on a 60-yard fumble return by Ben Goins, who stripped a Miners receiver of the ball and went untouched the other way with just over six minutes to go. Nether offenses could get much going in the first two quarters. In fact, Fort Meade didn’t get a first down until there was just under six minutes to go in the second quarter. And that came with backup signal caller Dawson Westbrook in the game. Westbrook helped drive Fort Meade from its own 31 to the Bartow 12 where the drive stalled and the Miners settled for a 30-yard Mario Roldan field goal. The half ended in controversy when the hosts were at the Bartow 1 yard line, but time expired before the Miners could run another play. Three straight completions form starter Dearrick Howard, back in the game, to Anfernee Clark put Fort Meade just a yard away before the clock ran out. Fort Meade coaches and players argued that they had spiked the ball to stop the clock, but to no avail. Each team had just one possession in the third quarter. Fort Meade had their possession stall at the Bartow 16, and a potential tying 35-yard field goal was no good. The Miners (2-2) then drove to the Yellow Jackets’ 25 on their first possession of the final frame before Goins’ fine play.

BARTOW BURIES FORT MEADE

Photo Credit: Pierre Ducharme

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