Dyersburg ends season with loss to Sheffield

MEMPHIS - Entering Friday night's first-round playoff game against Sheffield, the Dyersburg Trojans football team had the opportunity to prolong a somewhat disappointing season with a win over the Knights.

Unfortunately, key mistakes throughout the contest doomed Dyersburg's chances of advancing to play another week as Sheffield ended the Trojans season with a solid, 36-20 victory.

Penalties, fumbles, interceptions and the inability to stop the duel threat of Sheffield's Denzell Wilson and Julian Stafford was more than enough to end Dyersburg's season with a 5-6 overall record. With the loss, the Trojans finished the season below the .500 mark for the first time since 2004.

Wilson was a force for the Knights, rushing 16 times for 167 yards and three touchdowns. The fleet-footed tailback scored on runs of 55, 37 and 35 yards. On several occasions Dyersburg had its chances to stop the talented back but efforts proved unsuccessful.

"No.2 (Wilson) was something else. He kept fighting and we missed a lot of chances to bring him down. He is a very good football player with a ton of speed," said Dyersburg head coach Bart Stowe.

When Wilson wasn't doing damage to the Black and Gold defensive unit, Stafford proved to be equally effective. Stafford finished the game with 69 yards on five carries, and caught five passes for an additional 67 yards and two touchdowns.

Perhaps the biggest play of the night for Stafford came with 38 seconds left in the first half. The Trojans scored to take a 14-12 lead and appeared to have all the momentum heading to the half until the ensuing kickoff.

Stafford corralled the kick at the Sheffield 11-yard line. Taking his time and allowing the play to develop, Stafford found a seam and sprinted for the 89-yard touchdown.

"We we're right where we wanted to be. We had the lead with less than a minute to go and we were going to get the ball first to start the second half, so the momentum was on our side," said Stowe. "We just couldn't tackle the kid and I don't think we ever recovered."

Dyersburg's talented backfield tandem of Xavier Taylor and Tyler Lyons were limited for the most part by a stingy Knight defense.

Taylor, in his final high school contest, finished the game with 120 yards on 16 carries and two touchdowns. His teammate Lyons was held to 31 yards on just nine carries, scoring one touchdown from 3-yards out.

After a scoreless opening quarter, the Knights took a 12-0 lead with 6:37 left in the half before the Trojan offense came to life.

On second down near midfield, Taylor broke free and outran the Knight defense with 5:17 left in the quarter.

Two series later, a Sheffield punt was returned by Dyersburg's Clay Chambers to the Knight 15-yard line with 1:57 to play. On second and goal from the 3, Lyons walked into the end zone as Dyersburg took a 14-12 lead.

The advantage was short-lived when Stafford returned the kickoff for a quick score as Sheffield led, 18-14, at the half.

The momentum shift continued to start the third quarter when the Knight kickoff bounced off of Dyersburg's Dylan White and was recovered by Sheffield at the Dyersburg 48-yard line.

Moments later Stafford scored to push the lead to 24-14, a deficit the Trojans weren't able to overcome, ultimately falling to a solid Sheffield squad, 36-20.

"Though we lost, I'm proud of the kids for how hard they fought here at the end. We had too many mistakes tonight and against good football teams like Sheffield you can't do that and expect to win," said Stowe.

While his first season as head coach of the squad didn't end like he would have hoped, Stowe is already looking forward to the future.

"We're going to take some time off and begin preparing for next year. I'm really going to miss these seniors, but they have worked hard and set the bar high for the juniors and sophomores," added Stowe.