Reaves stars again as Chichester pulls away from Interboro

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UPPER CHICHESTER — Staring Reaves saw his defender show blitz as he lined up in the slot Saturday afternoon. Chichester quarterback Idrees Holloman saw it, too, then gave a second glance Reaves’ way to be sure his eyes didn’t deceive him.

Reaves is hard enough to stop when he’s covered at the line of scrimmage. As the star junior showed in the ensuing 25-yard masterpiece of a touchdown, giving him a free chance to get the ball in space … that’s a recipe for trouble.

Reaves broke seven tackles in a weaving, spinning, mazy run through the Interboro defense, the go-ahead score in a 27-8 Eagles win.

“If he’s not covering me, I’ll make a check with my quarterback to get me the ball,” Reaves said. “If no one is over top of me, I’m going to be a playmaker, make a play and go up.”

Reaves’ second touchdown of the day was a work of art, with 43 seconds left in the third quarter after Interboro (1-6, 0-2 Del Val) had taken its first lead. Holloman hit Reaves with an easy pitch and catch in the left slot. Reaves shrugged off a tackler, dipped back, spun out of another tackle, reversed field, found a seam and ended up dashing to the end zone near the right hashmarks.

It was the kind of star play that Reaves has made time and again this season for the Eagles (3-2, 1-0) . His first was much more routine, a one-yard plunge out of the wildcat package.

That drive, however, lit the spark for the Eagles, who didn’t have the best of offensive days. Chichester was limited to 192 yards of offense and nine first downs. It appeared the game would go to halftime scoreless. That is, until an Eagle made a play.

First up was Quadir Blackwell, who hauled in a perfectly placed sideline route from Holloman on third-and-8 with less than two minutes left in the half. The 40-yard gain set Chi up at the 12. Blackwell bulled to the 1 on the next snap, setting up Reaves’ touchdown.

“That pumped us up a lot,” Reaves said. “We were going down, and Quadir made a big play, and he got the momentum going for us to get to the end zone.”

The momentum nearly doubled ahead of the break, with Interboro losing a third fumble of the day, a perplexing hook-and-lateral play on a six-yard Zakee Brooks reception that didn’t find a teammate, only Chichester’s Zaid Degraphenreed. Interboro’s defense stood tall despite a first-and-goal for Chi to leave it a 7-0 deficit at half.

Interboro’s offense generated momentum out of the break. It had shown flashes, including a 12-play drive in the first quarter that ended with a fumble. This time, a 12-play march ate up 7:36 of clock and ended with a one-yard score from Abu Kamara.

Kamara rushed 24 times for 114 yards. He seemed one broken tackle away from busting a big run on several occasions as he bulldozed between the tackles, but that big play eluded the Bucs. Combined with four turnovers, it was too much to overcome.

“We’re a team that, we can’t have that,” Kamara said of the fumbles. “The way we play, it just doesn’t fit in our offense. In practice, we’ve got to work harder and work on ball security more.”

Once they had to mix in the pass, their progress slowed further. Julian Bulovas was 3-for-12 through the air for 34 yards. The Bucs turned the ball over on downs at their 23 late in the fourth quarter, leading to Zyair Bush’s 20-yard score to make it 20-8.

“Once I saw Erskine (Wilson) make a block, I had to cut up and score a touchdown,” said Bush, who was also excellent at linebacker, including a fourth-down stuff of Kamara in the first half.

Eddie Swinton picked off Bulovas on the next series and returned it 52 yards to burnish the final scoreline in what was a one-score game for the first 46 minutes.

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Matthew De George

Matthew De George
Matthew De George is the Asst. Sports Editor and the lead Union writer for The Daily Times.

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