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[Lynn Burke]

Islanders toughen up, blank Bruton

By Chris Lancia | Correspondent

POQUOSON — All season long, Poquoson has listened to talk of its soft defense and lack of a running game.

The Islanders might have put that talk to rest with their performance Friday night in a 26-0 shutout of Bruton.

Poquoson allowed just 164 yards of offense and rolled up 231 yards on the ground.

“We’ve been successful throwing the ball, but we wanted to get back to where we could run it,” Poquoson coach Elliott Duty said. “We worked all week on
drive-blocking, but it all came down to executing. We came out and executed real well tonight.

“Our linemen did a real good job of getting downfield and blocking tonight, and that helped us get 10- to 12-yard gains instead of four or five.”

Poquoson quarterback Eric Nixon, the Bay River District’s passing leader, attempted just nine passes, completing five for 77 yards and two spectacular
scores.

The first came on a fade pattern to Justin Bollinger that Bollinger pulled down over a defender and held onto as the defender drove him into the ground. The
the second came on a catch by Colby Crabtree in which he snatched the ball out of the air with one hand, split two defenders and went head over heels into
the end zone for a 37-yard touchdown.

Perhaps the biggest feat of the night came from the Islanders’ defense, which gave up much less than its season average in pitching the shutout.

The Islanders came into the night allowing 24.3 points and 190.3 yards per game.

“It’s huge for us to pitch a shutout tonight, because we’d been giving up a lot of points,” junior linebacker Cody Silva said. “The coaches told us all week
that we could perform like this if we shut down the trap and watched out for (Shawn Parrott), and we did a pretty good job of that tonight. This is a huge
momentum builder for us.”

Parrott took advantage of a powerful trap play in the middle of the line to run for 87 yards on 15 carries, but the rest of the Panther offense managed just 13 yards.

POQUOSON 26, BRUTON 0
Bruton 0;0;0;0;0
Poquoson 13;6;7;0;26
Poquoson--Eric Nixon 18 pass to Justin Bollinger (Nixon kick)
Poquoson--Troy Fiedler 3 run (pass failed)
Poquoson--Fiedler 41 run (pass failed)
Poquoson--Nixon 37 pass to Colton Crabtree (Nixon kick)
;Bruton;Poquoson
First downs;10;11
Rushes-yards;40-100;43-231
Passing yards;64;77
Comp-Att-Int;5-12-1;5-9-0
Penalties-yards;3-30;8-85
Fumbles-lost;5-2;1-1
Punts-avg.;5-21.4;3-33.6

[Bewildered]

How Bout Them Islanders, Good TEAM EFFORT

[FBFan]

Wow, how about those hook-ups between Nixon/Bollinger and Nixon/Crabtree? Two outstanding plays!

[sportsfan9]

Great job Islanders!! Keep doing the plays that work. Bollinger and Crabtree had some great catches. Better effort from Fiedler this week. He didn't have to fix his shoe after every play.

[Bewildered]

Those Catches From Nixon to Bolinger & Crabtree Should be on Someone's Top 10 Plays List. Catches Like That are What Makes High School Football So Exciting.

[BRD25836]

I can't agree more, but don't forget the pass to Charles that was called back due to a holding call. The Islanders finally looked diverse and got the win.........The Defense was outstanding and if we are going to give props the offense we should forget how awesome the defense played. Great Job D, we could have scored only once and still won the game because of your performance; don't let up you have many more games that require the same intensity.

[sportsfan9]

Absolutely! Defense dominated. I hope to see many more games like this.