The Mavericks of Manchester Academy are no longer winless after dominating Lee Academy to the tune of 35-0 on Friday night.
Manchester head football coach Bryan Dendy, who earned his first win as the Mavericks’ head coach, felt good about his team’s chances due to the high level of preparation they went through this past week.
“Going into it, I felt like our coaches had prepared our team well,” Dendy said. “Our kids really had a good week of practice and put in the work. I thought we had a really good game plan. Things all worked out well.”
To improve upon their opening performance, the Mavericks had to fix things offensively.
And the offense got started for Manchester early on in the contest when a 44-yard pass from Kinkead Dent to Will Fouche set up a 14-yard touchdown run by Blayke Dendy, giving the Mavericks an early 7-0 lead.
In the second quarter, Fouche soon made his presence felt on the defensive side of the ball with an interception, which again led to a Dendy touchdown run, making it a 14-0 game.
Another interception by Manchester led to points again soon after.
Owen McCloskey picked off a pass and took it back for a touchdown to give Manchester a 21-0 lead.
The game got out of hand for Lee Academy towards the end of the half when Blayke Dendy nailed a hat trick by scoring his third touchdown of the evening, which led to the halftime score of 28-0.
For the first time in a couple of years, the Mavericks were able to relax in the second half of a football game and run down minutes off of the clock, leading to a scoreless third quarter.
Manchester gave Lee the finishing blow in the fourth quarter when Reece Singleton broke a 13-yard run that ended in the end zone, bringing the final to 35-0.
After falling to Indianola Academy 35-7, the Mavericks had to go back to the practice field and become a more physical team.
According to Dendy, they succeeded in that regard.
“The biggest difference between this week and last week is that our offensive and defensive lines were much more physical,” Dendy said. “We established the line of scrimmage early in the game. That was the major difference and helped us win the game.”
Offensively, the Mavs were led by Reece Singleton, who rushed for 112 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries.
The only thing stopping Blayke Dendy on Friday night was the end zone. Dendy scored three touchdowns and rushed for 46 yards on nine carries.
Dendy added four tackles on the defensive end.
Taylor Porter and Tyler Reynolds led the team in tackles with six tackles each.
Will Fouche had a nice game on both sides of the ball for Manchester, hauling in two passes for a team-high 62 yards on offense and picking off a pass on defense.
On the special teams spectrum, Andrew Byrd went a perfect 5/5 on PATs and averaged 41 yards per punt on three attempts.
Manchester Academy will attempt to make it back-to-back wins for the first time since the 2014 football season when they take on their first divisional opponent of the season, Riverfield Academy.
Riverfield is 0-2 on the season after falling to River Oaks 44-32 on Friday night.
Dendy believes Riverfield’s size and physicality could pose a problem for his squad.
“Riverfield has two or three good backs on their team,” Dendy said. “They’re a big team with some good linemen. They’re well-coached, and they have a really good football team.”
Kickoff for the conference match-up is set for 7 p.m.
