Wendell Pritchett (10), Martin Powell (6) and Shelton Leija (22) cover a Thunderbird receiver last Thursday night. The pass was unsuccessful on the play. (Tribune photo/Dan Brawner)

It took a quarter for the EPC junior Warriors to get untracked against the Thunderbirds from Cross County last Thursday in Lepanto. Once they did, however, there was no looking back as they hamstrung the visitors 24-0 for their third win of the season.

Each team had the ball only once in the opening period, the Thunderbirds taking it first for some two minutes before punting it to the Warrior 20.

They then proceeded to keep the ball not only for the remainder of the quarter, but for nearly a minute into the second period. EPC got as far as the Thunderbird 19, but were first pushed back by an illegal motion penalty to the 24 yard line. Two plays later (and 17 plays after the drive began), Warrior quarterback Wendell Pritchett threw into the waiting arms of a gray clad 'Bird at the Cross County 19 to end the threat.

The visitors managed to move the ball out to their 40 where they had a first down, but went no further as they put the ball on the ground and A.J. Turner pounced on it to give EPC new life at the 37.

They wasted no time making the most of the opportunity. Dray Young, who led the Warriors with 123 yards on 13 carries, went 25 yards to the 12. Then after Shelton Leija went a yard to the 11, Pritchett set sail around left end and went into the end zone untouched for EPC's first score.

Pritchett then ran in the two-point conversion to put the Warriors up 8-0 with 4:08 left in the half. The scoring for the half wasn't over, however.

The Thunderbirds took over on the Cross County 36 to start their next drive, but in three plays could only net two yards. Setting up to punt on fourth down, EPC played for the block, flooding the punting zone with Warriors. Caleb Harston recovered the ball at the visitors' 41 with 3:00 remaining in the half.

Trying to resort to some trickery, the Warriors ran a double reverse pass to open the drive, but the ball was off target of the wide-open Leija some 10 yards down field.

Young made up for the play when he powered the ball to the 30 for a first down.

Pritchett then threw incomplete before throwing a three-yarder to Turner.

Then on third down, Young went around left end untouched into the end-zone to give EPC a 14-0 lead. Pritchett and Leija connected on the conversion to put the Warriors up 16-0 with 1:17 left in the half.

The second half began with EPC in possession of the ball at their 20. On the second play from scrimmage, however, the Warriors gave Cross County the ball on a fumble.

With their best field position of the night, however, the 'Birds were stymied by the vicious Warrior defense, the fourth down pass falling incomplete.

EPC took over the ball at their 24, but for one of the few times on the night, were unable to move the yard markers forcing Pritchett to punt it back to the Thunderbirds at the Warrior 48.

EPC had to wait only one play to get back on offense as Leija grabbed the ball out of the air and the Warriors took over again at the Thunderbird 46.

It took only two plays for EPC to get back into the end zone as Pritchett first threw to Leija for 24 yards to the 22, then hit Kyle Kelly in the right corner of the end zone for the score and a 22-0 lead. Young scored the final points of the game as he went in for the conversion and the 24-0 final tally with 2:41 remaining in the third period.

The game ended with the 'Birds unable to score even they had two more lengthy drives (one ended by a Martin Powell interception), but were never able to get the ball closer than 27 yards from the Warrior goal line.

"Over all it was a good team effort," said coach Brian Weathers following the game. "We played hard and ran to the football. In places we were a little bit lackluster, lost two fumbles and had an interception."

"Our passing started to come around, though, and that was good. We worked on it this week knowing I wanted to throw the ball. We had some success early and were able to put some points on the board so that gave us a chance to pass.

"Dray had another good game. He's a pleasure to have out there. He doesn't have break-away speed, maybe, but he has power and desire."

Pritchett finished the game 6 of 9 through the air for 114 yards while rushing one time for an 11 yard TD. Leija led the receiving corps with five catches for 81 yards while Kelly finished with two receptions for 32 yards and a touchdown, and Turner caught two for 16 yards.

The Warriors are open this week, but travel to Salem next Thursday for a 7 p.m. game.