commerce linden

Commerce Crowns Linden-Kildare in 33-7 win

Kevin Carson
Special to the Journal

The only suspense at Memorial Stadium Friday night came before the kickoff when the Homecoming King and Queen were announced. There were no anxious moments during the game though, as Commerce cruised to a 33-7 non-district win over Linden-Kildare.
For the record, Moises Santibanez was selected as Homecoming King and Susan Naizer was crowned Queen in pre-game ceremonies. But it was sophomore quarterback Bobby Phifer and senior Tommy Wright who gave Linden-Kildare the royal treatment once the contest began.
Phifer, making his first start of the season, threw for 136 yards and three touchdowns and Wright ran for 117 yards on 17 tries, including scoring runs of three and four yards. The defense did the rest as they limited the visiting Tigers (0-5 on the year) to just 126 yards of total offense, minus 33 yards rushing.
"Bobby (Phifer) did a lot of good things out there tonight," said first year head coach Terry Cron, who saw his team improve to 4-1 on the season. "He is a great athlete and it is just a matter of him being a sophomore and maturing. Overall, the whole team played much better and the line did a much better job and blocked really well."
Commerce wasted no time bouncing back from last week,s disappointing loss as they scored on their first four possessions of the game. And they wasted no time on any of the drives. A three-yard run by Wright capped off a 57-yard, 5-play drive which took just 2:04 off the clock. The point-after try was no good, however, and Commerce owned a quick lead just five minutes into the game.
The next score came just over one minute later, following a Linden-Kildare fumble at their own 17-yard line. Wright scampered for 11 yards on the first play and Antonio Burrell finished off the short drive with a five yard scoring pass from Phifer. The two-point conversion try was no good, but the Tigers held a 12-0 advantage with 6:08 still to play in the opening quarter.
Another Wright score, this one from four yards out, capped the third Commerce possession and scoring drive of the night. This one took 10 plays, covered 59 yards and took 3:14 off the clock. Ryan Coffey's run for the conversion was good and Commerce held a comfortable 20-0 lead after just one quarter.
A play reminiscent of the Franco Harris "Immaculate Reception" accounted for the fourth Tiger
score of the night. Phifer's long pass, intended for Chad Hunter, was deflected but was grabbed by Chris Winston, who raced the remaining 25 yards for a 53-yard touchdown reception. Bart Bryant's kick gave Commerce a commanding 27-0 lead at the half.
That scoring drive was just as brief as Commerce took just 1:17 to travel 88 yards in only four plays.
Commerce cruised in the second half, allowing just a long 72-yard touchdown pass from Cory Waters to Preston McGinnis for the only Linden-Kildare score of the night.
That score was neutralized on a 32-yard toss from Phifer to Winston, which capped another short drive of two plays and 56 yards. The only other play on the drive was a 24-yard pass from Phifer to Matt Plunkett.
The Commerce defense stifled the Linden-Kildare attack as they sacked Waters six times for minus 39 yards and pressured him for much of the evening. He completed 15-of-28 passes on the night for 156 yards but only three of those completions went for more than 10 yards.
One area of concern for the Tigers came late in the game as they lost two fumbles in the final three minutes. They fumbled four times on the night, losing three. They also had two touchdowns nullified by penalities.
"We are going to have to cut out some errors, hustle and not do anything foolish next week,"
concluded Kron. "We need to build on this game and gain some momentum into district play."
Commerce opens district play next Friday when they travel to Quinlan.

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