Saturday, September 19, 2009
By Skip Vaughn
For The Times skip.vaughn@htimes.com

HARVEST - Buckhorn High faced fourth-and-one from its own 22 in the closing seconds of the third quarter Friday night against Sparkman. Most football teams would have punted. But most football teams don't have a Marquis Smith in their backfield. Smith took the handoff and ran six yards for a first down. The senior running back finished with 165 yards and two touchdowns on 35 carries as the Bucks beat rival Sparkman 31-21. "Tonight I've really got to give it to my offensive line," Smith said. "They opened up a lot of holes and blocked really well."
"I believe our guys won this game because of the way they worked Sunday through Wednesday with great effort," Bucks coach Michael Jackson said. "I'm very proud of the seniors." Smith scored on runs of 1 and 17 yards. The Bucks (2-2, 2-2 in Class 6A, Region 8) finished with 392 total yards, 263 of them coming on the ground. Senior quarterback Matt Broady completed 11-of-18 passes for 129 yards and a touchdown. Nick Luna made all four of his extra points as well as a 25-yard field goal.
Sparkman's Laquince Love had 12 carries for 65 yards and three touchdowns for Sparkman (0-4, 0-3).
Buckhorn opened the scoring at 4:39 in the first quarter on Smith's 1-yarder, capping an 11-play, 60-yard drive. The Senators answered with 19.2 seconds left in the quarter on Love's 7-yard run, followed by Brandon Hayden's extra point. That ended an 11-play, 70-yard drive.
Luna kicked his field goal for the Bucks at 7:58 in the second quarter. Broady threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Trey Anderson in the closing seconds and the Bucks led 17-7 at halftime.
Smith scored on his 17-yarder at 4:38 in the third quarter, capping a four-play, 55-yard drive for a 24-7 lead.
Sparkman answered with Love's 11-yard run at 2:31 to culminate a six-play, 65-yard drive.
Rodrick Anderson scored on a 1-yard run for the Bucks at 7:27 in the fourth quarter for a 31-14 cushion.
Love scored on a 1-yarder for the Senators with 4:39 left to end the scoring.

Edited removed Haynes comments.