Live Oak — corey.davis@gaflnews.com

Battle of the Bridge renewed



LIVE OAK-Not a bad start last week for Suwannee but that one didn’t count. The season officially kicks off tonight when the Bulldogs host rival Hamilton County in the Battle of the Bridge rivalry.

Despite missing six starters last week, Suwannee still looked sharp.      

Among the missing was starting quarterback Jimmie Taylor, who sat out with a pulled groin and is questionable for tonight’s game.

His replacement Jackson Brown struggled early on going 1-for-6, including five consecutive incomplete passes, but rebounded nicely to finish 11 of 18 for 187 yards.

Makes you wonder if there might be a quarterback controversy whenever Taylor is cleared to play.

Brown declined to comment about it but did say, “That was the first time I had played quarterback since I was 10 in pee wee football. Starting off I was getting hit but our offense bought in and our receivers ran good routes and the offensive line blocked well.        

“I’m feeling on cloud nine right now and hopefully this will carry over to Hamilton County next week.”

Suwannee head coach Willie Spears did comment on the situation saying, “Every position their are weekly battles, where the kids have to race and face off in lifting, running and other competitions, the one who wins the most events will start. Before the injury the two were neck and neck, but right now the position is Jackson’s, it’s Jimmie’s position to get it back.”

Spears is hoping to get four of the six injured starters back tonight including Dontavius Hampton, Rashad Gardenhire, Alex Robinson and Kiree Twiggs.

Suwannee has won 12 in a row in the series against Hamilton County and looks to continue its dominance in the series, which hasn’t seen a competitive game since 2005.

“We got a long way to go, this is just a jamboree, our goal is to get better each week,” Spears said. “This is huge for us, I’m excited but we have to get better. We had a big crowd tonight and I’m looking forward to going up against the legend next week.”

The legend Spears was referring to is former Suwannee coach Mike Pittman, who brings his Hamilton County Trojans into Paul Langford Stadium tonight.

Bucs set to host Wolves

BRANFORD-After a disappointing performance last week in the Kickoff Classic, Branford is ready to start the season on the right foot.    

Head Coach Bill Wiles has transformed the Branford program into a consistent winner the last three years (22-9 overall), keeping that going however will be a little difficult. Another winning record would do wonders for the program as it is rejoining district play in 2011 in the new rural/urban class.

Wiles is trying to build the program back to what it once was, as under Cleve Sikes, the Bucs went 55-0-2 from 1972-1977, winning their first seven games of the 1977 season before suffering the first loss in six seasons.

Continuing the momentum starts tonight as the Bucs open their Big Ten Conference schedule hosting Gainesville St. Francis. Wiles will get a chance to find out who is going to step up and fill last years seniors shoes, including John Perry, who accumulated 3,223 all-purpose yards and 33 touchdowns.

Filling that void figures to be a combination of David Bass, Kyle Stebbins and Kyle Certain in the Bucs single-wing attack.

Branford has had their way with fourth year program St. Francis having outscored them 132-13 the last three years. This game is critical for the Bucs conference title hopes with an even larger conference game two weeks away against nemesis Bishop Snyder.