Evans football bends, but doesn't break in season-opening thriller over Thomson

EVANS – Evans High School football rolled with the punches Friday night .

The Knights bested Thomson 35-28 in a back-and-forth thriller in their season-opener at Blanchard Stadium. Coach Barrett Davis's message to his players seemed to ring true until the final whistle.

“We thought we’d gotten better over the summer. We know, offensively, we’ve got to be able to run the football and we were able to. We hit a couple of home-run shots in the passing game when we needed to,” he said. “We just talked to them about ‘Bend, but don’t break.’ We gave up some big plays, they’re a good football team, but we played our hearts out for four quarters and it paid off on the scoreboard.”

Evans (1-0) and Thomson (0-1) entered the locker room at halftime deadlocked at 14. Both offensive units traded blows throughout the evening, including three scoring plays of 70-plus yards. Evans senior Buddyrow Garrer started things off with a screen pass that he turned into a 70-yard score. Thomson added a pair Jaris Sinkfield (81) and Zay Brinson (72).

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Evans football perseveres in thrilling, season-opening win over Thomson

For Evans, it may be a peek into what’s to come as the Knights’ quarterbacks and Garrer begin to jell as the season progresses.

“He adds a lot on offense and defense,” Davis said. “We couldn’t get him the football much in scrimmages, but you saw on that quick screen he took that sucker to the house. He’s been a good factor in all three phases.”

While the back-and-forth nature of Friday’s game would wear down many similar teams, Davis said it was his players’ ability to have short memories that helped them squeak this one out.

“We would answer, then they would answer right back and it would kind of take the wind out of your sails a little bit,” he said. “Our guys didn’t even care. I’m proud of them for persevering, and just fighting through. They scored and we just kept on rolling.”

Evans is off next week and is looking at a Week 3 matchup with Grovetown. For Thomson, the Bulldogs will host North Augusta at The Brickyard next Friday.

“It’s good going into a bye,” Davis said. “Go into 1-0 and we’ve got Grovetown in two weeks.”

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Evans football bends, but doesn't break in season-opening thriller over Thomson