Burns forces five turnovers in rout of Kings Mountain

LAWNDALE — The Burns defense lived hard this week. After a rough outing with Crest the previous Friday, the Bulldog defenders received extra attention from the coaching staff this week.

After one quarter and a 13-10 deficit to county rival Kings Mountain Friday night, it seemed things hadn’t changed. Yet in a span of 12 minutes, the Bulldogs helped create five Mountaineer turnovers and built a big halftime lead en route to a 41-13 non-conference victory.

“We’d been on the defense all week,” Burns coach Matt Beam said. “Our coaches did a great job working them.  We didn’t tackle well in the first quarter but after that it was a total team effort.”

Both Beam and Mountaineer coach Greg Lloyd pointed to one play that turned the tide. The Mountaineers, trailing 17-13 with slightly more than four minutes to go in the half, had second and goal at the Bulldog seven. Kings Mountain elected to have Cameron Harris throw. The passer was hit, the ball was deflected at the line and into the hands of Tiqueece Brown, who sped 91 yards to score. The Mountaineers got another score before the half following a turnover to lead 31-13 at the break.

“That was a 14-point swing,” Kings Mountain coach Greg Lloyd said, shaking his head. “When you have five turnovers, you’re not going to win. We moved the ball well, we just left a lot of points out there.”

Beam credited the rush of noseguard Devonte  “Tank” Ramseur for his rush on the play, then Brown’s heads-up play to make the catch and score.

“Tiqueece didn’t get to play last week and that interception return was big,” said Beam.

With its big lead, Burns was able to mix the pass and the run in the second half while the Bulldog defenders continued to do their job.

“We played a good football team last week and I think a lot of people sort of jumped off our bandwagon a little,” said Beam. “We knew we needed a win because these first four games are as tough as anyone’s going to play. We fought every play. We knew we had to come out, get after it and hit people.”

Quarterback Brandon Littlejohn threw for 117 yards and four scores. Three of those went to Brandon Whitworth and another to Jonah Brooks. Darius Ramsey also provided 72 yards on the ground.

Kings Mountain piled up more than 200 yards rushing, led by Cedric Thompson’s 95 yards, but it couldn’t offset the turnovers.

“We’d not played anybody the caliber of Burns and our guys are going to have to pick it up,” Lloyd said. “We’ll have to learn from it and move on.”

Burns visits Asheville next Friday and Kings Mountain is at home against  Hickory.