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Bulldogs eclipse Sunshine, 49-24 Brantley advances to 2nd round of playoffs with win
November 9, 2007: The Brantley Bulldogs moved on to round two of the AHSAA State Playoffs with a 49-24 win over the Sunshine Tigers from Hale County Friday night in Brantley. The Bulldogs picked up their 10th win of the season against only one lost while the Tigers record fell to 6-4. Anthony Gulley was the big "Dawg" Friday night as he ran for 3 touchdowns, threw a pass for one, and caught a pass for a touchdown. Gulley had 240 yards rushing, 50 yards passing, and 25 yards receiving to go along with a 40 yard punt return for his offensive show that totaled 355 all purpose yards was just too much for the Tigers. The Bulldogs as a team had 365 yards rushing and 80 yards passing for a total offense of 445 yards. Gulley got the scoring going on Brantley's first play from scrimmage when he broke a 57 yard run before the fans had an opportunity to eat their first box of popcorn with 11:43 to go in the first period. A tremendous hole opened by offensive linemen Zack Ballard, Chase Haws, Westley Spivey, Dillon Motes, and Jared Hall paved the way for Gulley. Britt Barnes, who was perfect (7 for 7) with extra point kicks for the night, made it 7-0 for Brantley. Still in the first period of play, Justin Wright added Brantley's second score of the night with a 1 yard plunge to make it 14-0 after Barnes' kick. Brantley continued their attack in the 2nd quarter when Gulley made his longest run of the game, an 81 yard beauty that left Sunshine "blinded" by a burst of speed that was almost as fast as the speed of light. Barnes made it 21-0. The Tigers scored later in the period when quarterback Marcus Lee found Remell Mickens on a 21 yard touchdown pass. The point failed making it 21-6 with only 1:10 left in the first half. That was plenty of time for the explosive Bulldogs as with only 30 seconds to go Gulley tried his hand at throwing the ball, and he did a pretty good job when Stephen Walker pulled down the pass on a beautiful catch to score from 50 yards out. Barnes made it 28-6 at halftime. The second half saw Brantley make a big play right off the bat when Justin Wright stripped the ball from a Tiger ball carrier on the kickoff. Gulley was right there for the recovery to put Brantley in great field position. Two plays later Gulley ran it in untouched for a 10 yard touchdown and placekicker Barnes made it 35-6 with his accurate kick. Brantley held Sunshine on the Tigers next possession and regained the ball. After Brantley drove down to the 23 yard line of Sunshine, the Bulldogs faced a 4th and nine when quarterback Chase Hall found Gulley in the endzone for a touchdown pass. Barnes kicked it through for a 42-6 lead. Brantley emptied the bench at this point of the game and Sunshine's quarterback, Marcus Lee, put on a show with his aerial attack ability. He hit Darrell Lockett for a 24 yard touchdown, but Brantley's Devonte Porter answered for the Bulldogs with a 3 yard tourchdown run to increase the score to 49-12. Lee kept throwing and the Tigers scored at the 6:00 mark on a 71 yard pass to Lockett and on a 5 yard pass to Lockett on the final play of the game to make the final score 49-24. Dexter Daniels and Justin Wright were big playmakers on defense for the Bulldogs along with Tory Upshaw. Upshaw was injured in the first half and was unable to return. Brantley advances to round two with a powerful Wadley Bulldogs team, a 54-0 win over J. U. Blacksher in round one, making the journey to Brantley for a 7:00 pm kickoff.
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