By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
As much as anything else Sherman's 47-6 homecoming victory Friday night over Calhoun was a perfect storm of things that could go wrong for the Red Devils.
First the weather was hot and muggy, which would call for frequent substitutions to keep fresh players in the game. The problem was while Calhoun has 20 players on its roster Sherman had 37, of which 13 were seniors.
That - Sherman's ability to keep fresh players in the contest - was evident especially in the second half when the Tide ground out a lot of yardage while eating up a lot of clock.
Second a 60-yard scoring pass from Joseph Jude to Aaron Lowe followed immedialtely by a Calhoun fumble on the kickoff setting up another quick Sherman score (Jude hit Braden Harrah from 12 yards out) forced the Red Devils to abandon the running game for the passing game.
Calhoun is a much better running team most of the time. But Friday night the Red Devils threw the ball 26 times while only running it 39. Calhoun had 152 yards rushing and 121 passing.
Finally, fumbles, something that a ball control team must avoid, really bit the Red Devils as they fumbled seven times and turned it over four.
Those three things: Weather helping wear down the Red Devils, falling behind early and fumbles and Sherman's ability to strike from long distance combined to form the 'perfect storm' of bad things that hit Calhoun.
After taking a 13-0 first quarter lead Sherman was able to double it in the second quarter as Jude scored on a 38-yard quarterback keeper before hitting Harrah with a 91-yard scoring pass late in the quarter.
The result had the Tide on top 26-0 at halftime.
In the third quarter the Tide simply wore down small-numbered Calhoun behind the running of Kyle Davis. Davis scored on runs of 36 and three yards while gaining 88 of his team high 121 yards rushing in the period. His two touchdowns combined with Trenton Sheppard's extra point kick gave the Tide a 39-0 lead after three.
Calhoun finally got on the board with 2:50 remaining in the game when backup quarterback Caden Hicks, a freshman, scored on a three-yard run. The touchdown was set up by a 45-yard run by Lucas Wilson.
Wilson was the leading ground gainer for Calhoun with 54 yards on five carries. He was backed by Cole Ritchie with 39 on 12 carries, Seth Moore with 35 on six attempts and Noah Allen with 10 on three runs. Casey Ritchie was limited to six yards on 10 carries but a lot of his positive yardage was eaten up by sacks on passing attempts.
The final touchdown of the game came on another long run by Sherman - this time a 66-yard run by freshman Ben Salmon.
Calhoun will try to get back on the winning path this coming Friday night when it plays host to 1-1 Doddridge County. | 
