James Wells rushed for 227 yards with two touchdowns and recovered a late onside kick to help the Cameron Yoe Yoemen reclaim the bell with a 41-28 win over Rockdale at Yoe Field in the District 24-3A opener for both schools.
“It was important (to win the bell),” Wells said. “They beat us pretty bad last year so we had a revenge factor working. I’m happy for my team. We play as a team and we win as a team.”
Needless to say the Yoemen, who improved to 3-1, were happy to have Wells back in full force after he was forced to miss the opening two games for undisclosed disciplinary actions.
Yoe coach Mike Mullins had said before the game that he wasn’t sure if Wells was quite up to game form. After Friday’s win, Mullins was satisfied.
“I think he’s in pretty good shape,” Mullins said with a laugh. “He still has a ways to go. But the thing is, with Damyon Kelley and Wells we have sort of a two-headed monster back there. They give us a change of pace with two guys that can run. I love them both.”
The tone of the game was set early after Yoe’s Trevion Simms recovered a fumble by Rockdale (4-1) on the opening kickoff.
Wells took a handoff in motion to the right for a 29-yard gain, giving the Yoemen a first-and-goal. That helped set up a 2-yard run by quarterback Steven Townsend that put the Yoemen on the board first.
“That was huge,” Mullins said. “We knew we had to get some breaks early.”
After Yoe’s defense shut down Rockdale on two consecutive possessions, Town-send opened up the passing game. He hit Jamal Williams on a 9-yard pass, then followed with a strike to Williams in the end zone for a 39-yard touchdown and a 14-0 first-quarter lead.
That’s where the score stood at halftime as both defenses allowed little the rest of the half.
The telling halftime statistic was Rockdale’s 73 yards of offense, all in the rushing game, despite completing four passes.
“We needed to control the line of scrimmage,” Jeff Miller said. “The fumble (on the opening kick) was big but it didn’t cost us the football game by any means. We needed to go out there and get a stop. We didn’t do that, then we don’t do anything offensively the first three quarters.”
And the Yoemen did, as Williams scored on 10-yard double-reverse and Wells added a 1-yard touchdown run to take a 28-0 lead into the final frame.
With the game seemingly out of hand, many of the overflow Rockdale fans headed home and the bell was quietly turned over to the Yoemen.
Except, the Tigers began to make it interesting.
Rockdale’s Mark Drake hit Joe Sanders with a 12-yard touchdown pass to open the fourth quarter. Then after Yoe answered, Rockdale again was on the move as Greg Chelf, who finished the night with 125 yards - all in the fourth quarter - had a 35-yard run to set up his own 14-yard scamper that cut the lead to 34-14.
After Yoe recovered the onside kick, Wells had his most impressive run of the night on an off-tackle handoff to the right. After gaining about 20 yards, he did a little juke move to totally fool two Rockdale defenders and took it in for a 54-yard score.
“We know James is a talented kid,” Miller said. “We’ve seen him for a long time. We’ve seen him do that in a Rockdale uniform for a couple of years. He really did have a good night. They did a good job blocking for him and he did a lot on his own.”
While the Tigers were able to score, recover an onside kick and score again, the Yoemen sealed the game when Wells recovered the final onside kick with just under 40 seconds left.
“When you are already down three touchdowns, you can’t start trading touchdowns,” Miller said. “And that’s kind of what happened in the end.”
And for Mullins, who said before the game the main focus was winning the district opener, the sound of the bell ringing sounded sweet.
“It sounds good,” he said. “I’m going to enjoy that tonight. But like I said, the bell comes along with winning, and I’m proud of these seniors that got the chance to win it here at home.”
