Beech Buccaneers Survive Week 1
We had an opportunity to make it up to Wildcat Country this evening to see the Wilson Central Wildcats host the Beech Buccaneers. The game started out with a huge blocked punt returned for a Buccaneers touchdown. The Bucs defense came to play early in the contest, holding the Wildcats to zero going into the half. Ian Hefner led the defense with an interception to close out the half, right before turning it back over to the Wildcats going into the locker room. Coming out of the half, Beech’s offense got rolling with a 61yd rushing touchdown wheeled off by senior running back Rodrick Napper, who told me after the game he was fine after a 2nd half injury scare. Napper returned to the game to help his Bucs finish off the Wildcats, but not before junior running back Tyler Bowes wheeled off his own 28yd rushing touchdown to creep closer to the Bucs. Few plays later Central scored again off a Jordan Wilson 4yd rushing touchdown to inch even closer to the Bucs 17-13 lead in the third. After Wilson’s score both teams had an opportunity to edge closer or advance the score, but the defense of Beech stood strong when it needed towards the end of the game while milking the clock to get the win.
We had an opportunity to catch up with Napper after the game who told us his ankle sprain was nothing and he’ll be fine. Napper said that he was “happy for the win and thanked his coaches for putting his Bucs in great position to win”. Labeled as a “sleeper”, Napper coming off his All County Football Team as Sumner County Player of the Year Award and 288 yards, 4TD game versus Mount Juliet last season is looking to eclipse his 1600+ rushing yards this fall and touch the 2k mark. We’ll have to keep an eye on Napper throughout this fall to see if he can reach his goal of 2000+ yards, he said his teammates were awesome for fighting to the end and getting the win.
