Davenport's 90-yard TD run sends
ISB to Division II championship
By Gregory Piatt,
Belgium bureau
Raymond T. Conway / Stars and Stripes
ISB's Darrell Davenport eludes SHAPE's Greg Najac during the Division II high school
football championship game in Mons, Belgium, on Saturday. Davenport finished with 223
yards rushing. |
MONS, Belgium — After seesawing up and down the field and on the scoreboard, the
season for two Division II high school football teams all came down to one play Saturday.
With about seven minutes left in the game and the International School of Brussels on
the 10-yard line, Darrell Davenport broke a 90-yard touchdown run to lead the Raiders to
20-13 victory over SHAPE in the DODDS-Europe Division II football championship.
"I just wanted to get away from the defenders," Davenport said about the play
after the game — dubbed by some as the Belgium Bowl — at the Supreme
Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. "I just wanted to run my heart out."
And tear up the field Davenport did. The sophomore running back carried the ball 23
times for 223 yards. Along with scoring the winning touchdown, he scored on a two-point
conversion, threw for a touchdown and was responsible for more than two-thirds of
ISB’s total offense.
"He’s a deceptively elusive runner," said Kregg Kappenman, SHAPE’s
head coach. "I knew it would come down to Davenport and it was only a matter of time
that he would break loose.
"He’s too good of a runner."
Raymond T. Conway / Stripes
SHAPE's Eshawn McNeil plows through the ISB' defensive line for a seven-yard gain. |
Before Davenport’s game-winning run, the momentum seemed to be going in
SHAPE’s direction. SHAPE (6-1) had regained the lead with nearly eight minutes left
in the game on a 41-yard run by junior Marques Wynn, who rushed for 134 yards on 16
carries.
But getting ready for that final period is something the Raiders always focus on, ISB
coach Bob Stewart said.
"We want to win the fourth quarter," said Stewart, whose team avenged a 9-6
defeat to SHAPE during the regular season.
SHAPE opened the scoring early in the second quarter when junior Greg Najac, who rushed
for 66 yards on 15 carries, caught a 19-yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback
Ryan Rice.
The Raiders (7-1) got on the scoreboard in second quarter when Davenport threw a
20-yard flea flicker pass to junior Mike Barrett, who caught three passes for 39 yards.
SHAPE’s Bryan Farthing knocked down the two-point conversion pass from ISB’s
quarterback Will Hendrickson.
But ISB took the lead at 12-7 shortly afterward when Hendrickson, a junior, threw a
31-yard touchdown pass to Moustafa El Baqqaly. SHAPE stopped Davenport on the two-point
conversion run.
Davenport, though, would get the last say.
"We knew we had to stop Davenport," Najac said. "We played tough defense
but we couldn’t hold him."
The Raiders had 328 yards of offense and SHAPE had 336. That didn’t mean there
wasn’t any defense. The Raiders’ Ian Beamon had 20 tackles and Josh Hendrickson
had 18 tackles.
SHAPE, which has played in four championship games in the past six years, came up just
a long run short.
"I knew it would be a war," Kappenman said. "But we needed to score one
more time, but didn’t. My hat’s off to ISB."
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