How Camden punched ticket to SC title game with dominant win over Gilbert
Camden senior running back Leroy Bracey has been wearing his father’s state championship ring for as long as he can remember. He now has a chance for one of his own.
Bracey scored three touchdowns to lead the Bulldogs’ offense to nearly 600 yards Friday as they dominated Gilbert 58-7 in the Class 3A Lower State championship at Zemp Stadium. Camden will try to earn its seventh state title and first since 2001 next weekend.
Bracey’s dad was a starting linebacker on Camden’s 2001 championship team.
“I’m just happy we’re going to state,” Bracey said. “This means everything. My dad has a ring and I wear it all the time, imagining me wearing a ring.”
The Bulldogs, who lost in the state semifinals a season ago, will face Daniel next Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at Spring Valley High School’s Harry Parone Stadium.
“We’ll have our work cut out for us, but we’re going to enjoy this tonight, being Lower State champs,“ coach Brian Rimpf said. “This is our fourth year here, and you’re always a better coach when you have pretty good players, and we have a lot of pretty good players.”
Camden (8-0) used the dominating ground attack of Bracey, Willis Lane and Jaffari Pearson to rush for 455 yards and 597 yards of total offense.
The Bulldogs started the first-half scoring on special teams. James Crim blocked a punt and picked it up inside the Indians 10 to score.
Bracey, Lane and Pearson did the rest. Lane finished with 155 yards and a score, Bracey added 118 on just eight carries and Pearson chipped in with 64 yards and a score on the ground.
Bracey capped a four-play, 75-yard drive with a 12-yard scamper around the right end to make it 13-0. After another Gilbert punt, Bracey and Lane had back-to-back 38-yard runs before Bracey scored from 2 yards out to make it 19-0 with less than a minute remaining in the first quarter.
Gilbert’s only score then came on an Izayah Whiteside 43-yard run.
Pearson added a 14-yard run and Van Blank connected on 36-yard field goal at the halftime buzzer for a 30-7 lead.
It was all Camden in the second half as they limited the Gilbert to just 215 yards of total offense, well less than half the Indians’ average.
“That was a great job by our defense,” Rimpf said. “That was the star of the night.”
Gilbert coach Chad Leaphart was dejected but praised what the Indians (7-1) accomplished after losing a lot of seniors off last season’s team. The Indians have never reached a state championship game and last played in the semifinals in 1992.
“Our guys had a great year, and I told our seniors they brought our program another step,” Leaphart said. Camden was “so big and physical up front, and they match that with athleticism. They’re very good and we couldn’t ever get anything going against them.”
HOW THEY SCORED
First Quarter
C – James Crim 10 blocked punt return (Donovan Edwards kick) 7:45
C – Leroy Bracey 12 run (run failed) 3:58
C- Bracey 2 run (kick failed) 0:58
Second Quarter
G – Izayah Whiteside 43 run (Cooper Burkett kick) 10:24
C – Jaffari Pearson 14 run (Jaxon Hembree run) 3:51
C – Van Blank 36 FG 0:00
Third Quarter
C – Bracey 9 run (Blank kick) 9:49
C – Willis Lane 10 run (Blank kick) 1:21
Fourth Quarter
C – Anthony Lyles 21 pass from Pearson (Blank kick) 10:00
C – Tyler Geter 54 pass from Cauthen Best (Blank kick) 6:39
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing: G – Colton Mason 22-74. C – Willis Lane 13-155, Leroy Bracey 8-118, Jaffari Pearson 9-64.
Passing: G – Whiteside 7-20-0, 85 yards. C – Pearson 8-12-0, 80 yards, Cauthen Best 1-1-0, 54 yards.
Receiving: G – Gray Leaphart 4-48. C – Lane 2-30, Geter 1-54, Lyles 1-21.
This story was originally published November 27, 2020 at 11:27 PM.