Cyclones thinking defensively

Ron Counts, Staff Writer
Published: September 14, 2008

A struggling offense’s best friend is a solid defense.

Eastern View proved that in its home opener against William Monroe on Friday.

The Cyclones’ defense held the Green Dragons to just 175 yards of total offense. It held WM to a pedestrian 43 rushing yards and forced five turnovers in the 28-21 win.

“We did a lot of good things tonight,” EVHS coach Greg Hatfield said after his post-game speech to the team. “But we still have some work to do. We have to find a way to get on track, and finish drives offensively.”

The Cyclones’ offense racked up 325 total yards of offense, but 233 came via the talented feet of senior running back Stevie Strother.

Quarterback Cody Whitlock struggled to get on the same page with his receivers, completing just 10 passes for 119 yards.

But sophomore defensive tackle Tyler Dean picked up the slack. Dean seemed very comfortable in the Dragons’ backfield all night, finishing with eight tackles for a loss.

“Tyler played the game of his life,” Hatfield said. “He gets amazing penetration for only being a sophomore.”

Dean especially terrorized WM’s duo of related running backs in the second half. Early in the third quarter, he busted through the offensive line and hit WM’s Devon’te McCarty just as he took a hand off from WM quarterback Troy Legg to force a punt.

He struck again on the Dragons’ next possession, slamming Devon’te’s brother, Deon’te, to the ground behind the line of scrimmage to force another punt.

As if that weren’t enough, Dean set up the Cyclones’ game-winning drive by forcing a fumble from Deon’te that eventually led to Strother’s fumble recovery turned go-ahead score.

But Dean’s great game wasn’t just on the defensive side of the ball, according to Hatfield.

“A lot of Stevie’s big runs came because of Tyler pulling from his right guard spot,” he said.

Dean had a great game, but he wasn’t the Cyclone’s only defensive star.

Sophomore Alquon Newman put Legg on his back with a potent sack to set up a third and long in the second quarter, and he dove on a fumble deep in Green Dragon territory late in the third quarter.

Senior Heath Brown sacked WM backup quarterback Mitchell Morris to stifle the Green Dragons’ final scoring opportunity, and senior Moe Safren finished the game with two interceptions. His second coming with just over one minute left in the game to seal Eastern View’s first win in the program’s history.

“Last week, I said we didn’t play four quarters,” EVHS senior Moe Safren said after the game. “Tonight, the defense stepped up and we definitely played a complete game.”

Ron Counts can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 166 or