By David Justice
Correspondent
RALEIGH — Millbrook, which was knocked out of the unbeaten ranks by Wakefield last week, bounced back Friday with a 42-0 thumping of Sanderson.
The Wildcats (7-1, 2-1 Cap Seven) now have an open date before taking on Leesville Road, Wake Forest-Rolesville and Enloe, with the conference title still in their sights.
Sanderson (4-3, 0-2) suffered more than just a loss. The Spartans also lost quarterback Jeff Massey to a broken leg in the second quarter. Massey was averaging 127 yards rushing per game.
Not only that, Massey’s backup, sophomore Zack Powell, left the game with a knee injury.
“It’s one of those freak things,” Sanderson coach Jason Tindal said. “Massey is such a senior leader, and when we lost Powell we also lost a starting corner and kicker.
“And playing Millbrook you’ve got to play a good game. They’re so explosive.”
Running back Kuwon Eldridge was his usual productive self, scoring touchdowns on runs of 21 and 17 yards. He turned two screen passes into gains of 43 and 56 yards to set up two other scores. He rushed for 122 yards on 12 carries.
He had help in the big-play department from Malik Fair, who returned the second-half kickoff 78 yards to set up a touchdown and then returned the next Sanderson punt 63 yards to set up Eldridge’s 21-yard touchdown.
Junior Michael Thornton got into the act with a touchdown pass, and he caught two touchdown passes. In the first quarter he took a lateral from quarterback Brian Kass and completed a 39-yard touchdown pass to Garrett Redmond. In the second half, he caught a pair of 30-yard touchdown passes from Kass.
Kass completed 10 of 19 passes for 224 yards and carried for a 10-yard touchdown run.
“The defense played well the whole game,” Millbrook coach Clarence Inscore said. “I thought we played hard the whole way, but played smarter in the second half.
“I hated to see their quarterback [Massey] get hurt,” Inscore added. “He’s a heck of a player, and my thoughts go out to him and his family and coach Tindal.
“Now we’ve got a bye week to get healed up and ready for three more tough games.”
SAN MBK
Rushes-Yards 29-99 39-214
Comp-Att-Yards 6-11-56 11-20-263
SAN 0 0 0 0 — 0
MBK 7 7 21 7 — 42
SCORING SUMMARY
MBK—G.Redmond 39 pass from M.Thornton (D.Brown kick); MBK—K.Eldridge 17 run (D.Brown kick); MBK—B.Kass 10 run (D.Brown kick); MBK—K.Eldridge 21 run (D.Brown kick); MBK—M.Thornton 30 pass from B.Kass (D.Brown kick); MBK—M.Thornton 30 pass from B.Kass (D.Brown kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing: SAN—C.Boykin 2-3, J.Massey 5-41, D.Powell 6-(-5), Z.Powell 2-2, T.Trumps 12-56; MBK—K.Eldridge 12-123, D.Freeman 4-10, S.Gray 3-21, B.Kass 13-13, Q.Roberts 6-48.
Passing: SAN—S.Bauckham 5-9-50-0, J.Massey 1-1-6-0, Z.Powell 0-1-0-0; MBK—B.Kass 10-19-224-0, M.Thornton 1-1-39-0.
Receiving: SAN—M.James 4-42, M.Mills 1-8, J.O\’Neal 1-6; MBK—K.Eldridge 3-101, S.Gray 3-42, G.Redmond 1-39, M.Thornton 4-81.
