Sept. 24, 2007 — The intense rivalry between the Charlotte Amalie and Ivanna Eudora Kean high schools was showcased Friday evening on St. Thomas, as the Chickenhawks swooped in for a 20-6 victory over the Devil Rays, continuing week two of IAA football action at Lionel Roberts Stadium.
The Devil Rays were coming off a disappointing showing last week against the Private School Arawak Warriors, a game marred by numerous turnovers from both teams. The Devil Rays were unable to rack up points during the game, and one of their turnovers led to a touchdown by the Arawaks and the only score of the night.
The CAHS Chickenhawks came off of a strong performance in St. Croix last week, and seemed confident going into Friday's game.
The game got off to a bang when CAHS' Devin Pruitt took the very first play — a handoff from quarterback Brian Mills — 46 yards for a touchdown. The Chickenhawks failed on the two-point conversion. Both defenses picked up for the rest of the quarter, keeping either team from scoring.
Late in the second quarter, Kean — trying to pick away at CAHS' defense — threw a short pass to tight end Keith Nicholsen. The pass for Kean was an underneath play, designed to just pick up the first down, but Nicholsen seemed to be unaware of that. He caught the pass, squared his shoulders up-field and bulldozed over the Chickenhawks' entire defense on his way to an 82-yard touchdown, tying the score 6-6.
Kean also failed on their two-point conversion, and the game remained 6-6 going into the half.
Each team's defense started the second half at full throttle. Eudora Kean had their impressive opening drive stopped in the end zone when Chickenhawks' safety Ricky Gumbs intercepted a pass from Kean quarterback Deron Joyce and brought it out to their 12-yard line.
But Kean's defense answered back, holding CAHS' offense to a three-and-out, forcing them to punt.
CAHS finally recovered a Eudora Kean fumble, and on their ensuing drive, the Chickenhawks took it all the way down the field, with Mills running the ball in himself for the touchdown.
The score took the life out of Eudora Kean, and gave CAHS a second wind. The Chickenhawks defense picked up multiple sacks of the quarterback and forced the Devil Rays to turn the ball over on downs.
CAHS just gave the ball to Pruitt and began running it down the Rays' throat. The drive ended with a 14-yard run by Pruitt for a touchdown. CAHS converted on a two-point conversion to take a 20-6 lead.
Pruitt put his team on his back during the game, carrying them for 93 yards and two touchdowns.
Though the win keeps CAHS' record perfect, Chickenhawks head coach Robert Massey expressed disappoint at the team after the game.
"We didn't execute well, that's the reason why it was a slow game — we really didn't start performing until the second half," he said. "We should have had those points in the first quarter, and then we could have played a different ball game. But they made a battle out of it, just because of the mental mistakes they made."
Kean head coach Ruba Augustine expressed similar sentiments about the Devil Rays' performance.
"It was a tough loss, a tough loss," he said. "The same thing that happened last week — we fumbled the ball. We had a very good drive going, but we stopped penetrating part of the field, and we fumbled again. And they [CAHS] took advantage of our mistakes, capitalized on them. I told my team at half time that the team that scores the next touchdown is the team that's going to win. What I said is exactly what happened — they scored, took advantage of it and won the game."
