By Matthew Hatfield

Correspondent

The visiting King’s Fork Bulldogs put their unblemished record on the line Friday night in Chesapeake against the surging Indian River Braves, but a familiar foe got the best of them.

Former Lakeland standout Jaquan Yulee made key plays all night long for his new team, and the Braves rolled 33-6.

King’s Fork’s usually strong rushing attack struggled to generate many positive plays with 30 carries resulting in negative 29 yards, while Indian River used a pair of fourth down conversions to lead to scores and a 13-0 lead by the 10:36 mark of the second quarter.

“They whipped our tails. They did a very good job and deserved it,” King’s Fork head football coach Joe Jones bluntly stated. “We told our team that those guys are getting better every week. They really played well last week against Nansemond River and they showed what they’re capable of doing.”

As for Yulee, he made his presence felt on both sides of the ball. Late in the second quarter, he used his strength to barrel into the end zone for a rushing touchdown. On defense, the junior middle linebacker led the charge with a game-high 12 total tackles, three for loss and a sack in bottling up King’s Fork’s offense.

The Bulldogs gained just eight yards in the first half of play and managed only three first downs, never crossing midfield. In those first 24 minutes of action, star junior running back Deshaun Wethington was held to 23 yards on five attempts. Meanwhile, the passing game completed two of six passes for 12 yards in that stretch.

Three separate 15-yard penalties plagued King’s Fork on what was Indian River’s fifth offensive series of the night, which ended in the Braves’ fourth touchdown to push the score to 27-0 following a 12-play, 60-yard drive.

Indian River, which has now won three in a row after a 0-2 start, gained 198 total yards on 35 plays through the first two quarters of play. Coming into Friday night, the Bulldogs had given up just 29 points on defense in four games. Their defense also accounted for six touchdowns, four in last week’s 55-19 rout of Great Bridge.

“We didn’t play either side of the ball well. We didn’t play well defensively or tackle well. I think we used up all our defensive karma last week,” Jones commented.

“Offensively, we didn’t have the ball much, and when we did, we didn’t do much with it. When they were shifting defensively, a lot of times we were waiting for them to get set. We’ve got to get up, snap the ball and go.”

Wethington, who rushed for 339 yards in a comeback victory over Grassfield two week ago, finished with 25 yards on 10 carries, both season lows. He left the game late with an apparent leg injury and did not return.

With the ground attack unable to manufacture much, the Bulldogs were forced to go to the air. Junior quarterback Ryan Kluck completed 6 of 13 passes for 88 yards, including a 51-yard touchdown pass to senior receiver Camryn Little with 8:37 remaining.

King’s Fork got 10 tackles from senior safety Kane Miskel and eight total stops by senior linebacker Duke Santora, who also blocked a punt in the final minute of the contest.

Denied of achieving its first 5-0 start in school history, King’s Fork was disappointed afterward, but still remains in very good shape when it comes to the Group 4A-South playoff picture.

“I simply told our guys this game won’t define our season. We’ve got bigger fish to fry after this week, and we need to focus now,” said Jones, whose team plays host to Lakeland (1-4) on Oct. 10.

“We’ve got Lakeland next, it’s an in-city game and they’ll be chomping at the bit to play us because they played these guys to three points and we had a big goal-line stand at the end of the game to beat them last year. We’ve got some things we have to clean up and we need to get better.”