Griffin's 5 TDs key Bruins' rout of Knights

FLORENCE — The streak is over.

Junior quarterback Kaleb Griffin and the South Florence Bruins made sure of that.

Griffin threw for 257 yards and four touchdowns and ran for another score as South ended a nine-game losing streak to city rival West Florence with a 41-7 victory Friday at Memorial Stadium.

“It’s been a long time since these kids have had this feeling and they deserve it,” South coach Lynn Fleming said. “It was a great atmosphere and the community really came out and supported us.

“Both sides of the ball played well and it was just a great way to start the season.”

With 35 returning players, South spent less time in the offseason and preseason on learning a new system and more time on getting its players comfortable in their roles.

It showed immediately, as the offense racked up 375 yards and six touchdowns.

“We just attacked and hit them where they weren’t,” said Griffin, who called a lot of own offensive plays. “It feels great to see all your hard work pay off.

“To finally get that monkey off your back feels good.”

The Bruins’ defense did its job as well, holding the Knights to 115 yards of offense and six first downs. A third quarter touchdown was all South allowed, and the Bruins’ offense responded to that with 28 unanswered points.

“Their experience in the end won out,” West coach Trey Woodberry said. The Knights lost 31 seniors from last year’s squad and had 50 players on the roster who had never played at Memorial Stadium.

“We had to play man (coverage) in the second half to try and get pressure on (Griffin) and we weren’t able to do that and he made us pay,” Woodberry said.

“He’s a great quarterback, and we took some chances that he was able to capitalize on.”

Griffin completed four of seven passes on the Bruins’ opening drive and then ran in from a yard out to put South up 7-0 midway through the first quarter.

His 17-yard strike to Blake Vinson with 5:25 left in the half gave South a 13-0 lead at the break.

Needing a score to climb back in the game, West responded with a nine-play drive on its opening possession of the third quarter. Eddie McKenzie punched it in from 5 yards out as the Knights pulled within 13-7.

“I was proud of the way our kids fought back and felt like we had some momentum there,” Woodberry said. “But we had so many kids playing both ways and with our lack of depth, they just ran out of gas there at the end.”

The comeback was short-lived, as Griffin and the Bruins marched back down the field and scored on Griffin’s TD pass to Charles Nettles to put South up 19-7 with 2:42 left in the quarter.

“(Griffin) did a great job of making plays for us and our offensive line really opening up some big plays for Terrion (Brown),” Fleming said. “It was an all-around great effort by our guys. They worked hard in the weight room all summer and I think it showed.”

The Bruins scored on each of their next two possessions on Griffin passes to Trent Dowd and Vinson to fully put the game out of reach.

As both teams shook hands, a portion of the South Florence crowd made its way onto the field to celebrate with the team and cheer on as the alma mater was played.

“Any win to the start the season is good, whether its against West or anybody,” Fleming said. “But it’s great for the kids. Now we just have to move on to step two.”