No TD No Prob For BC's Young (Daily News-Record)

Daily News-Record - By Dustin Dopirak

BRIDGEWATER — It was the perfect set-up for a workhorse-back appreciation play. Second-and-four from the Hampden-Sydney 5-yard line with Bridgewater College already leading 24-13 and preparing to put the game away.

Senior tailback Winston Young had taken a beating on each of his 20 carries and still managed to bang his way to 105 yards. He also hauled in two swing passes for 22 more yards, and was a crucial part of all of the Eagles’ scoring drives.

He hadn’t scored yet, though, so this seemed to be an opportunity to call a play that would finally end with the battle-scarred Young celebrating in the end zone instead of taking another hit or ending up under another pile of Tigers.

And that’s what BC coach Michael Clark called for. Sort of.

Quarterback Jeff Highfill had the choice of handing the ball to Young or keeping it himself, with the option based on his read of Hampden Sydney’s left defensive end.

Highfill misread it and kept the ball -- even though Young had a wide-open path to the end zone -- and scored on what had to be the most guilt-ridden touchdown run of his career.

“I apologized to [Young] so many times,” Highfill said after the Eagles’ 31-13 victory over H-SC on a homecoming Saturday at Jopson Field. “… I was reading the backside end and he gave me a slow read. He was just standing there and I thought he was going to take Winston, so I pulled, and he just came right at me, so I followed Winston. And I apologized over and over again to him.”

Not to worry, Young told Highfill.

“He grabbed me during the game and said, ‘Jeff, don’t worry about it. As long as we win, I’m happy.’ That’s the type of guy we need,” Highfill said.

Said Young, who has 335 yards but just one touchdown this season: “It doesn’t matter. We won and that’s all I really care about. Stats are just figurative things. To me it’s the win that matters.”

That’s as cliché as it gets, but the soft-spoken Young sounded honest-to-God sincere -- and if you ask his teammates, that’s because he is.

“He’s a true team guy,” fullback Tyler Thomas said. “He’s a captain, and that’s what a captain has to be. That’s one of his best characteristics.”

Of course, his size, strength, speed and ability to keep his legs moving after contact aren’t bad characteristics either.

Young is 5-foot-10 and a very thick 205 pounds. He’s got a low center of gravity, and that makes him extremely tough on Division III defenders.

The Tigers loaded up the box against the run Saturday, determined that Young wasn’t going to beat them. But Young continued to make something out of nothing.

His longest run of the day was just 17 yards, but he continually picked up chunks of 5 and 6 yards to better the Eagles’ field position.

“He was definitely a hard runner,” Hampden-Sydney linebacker Jason Smith said. “He definitely earned the yards he got.”

And that opened up things for the Eagles’ passing game. BC ran lots of play action and found receivers open across the middle of the field because the Tigers’ linebackers and safeties were coming up to try to stop Young.

“When you got that running game, those linebackers come flying on play action,” Highfill said. “That opens the middle wide open for our tight ends and crossing routes. It’s great to have him and [backup Phillip Carter] because both of them can wear you down. He’s solid muscle, and a lot of people don’t realize it, he’s got amazing moves.”

Even so, Young certainly felt like he earned his yards Saturday. He’s still feeling the effects of a rib injury he suffered just before the season that kept him out of the Eagles’ second game. He also has a minor groin injury and what he calls “a lot of nicks and nacks.” After a 20-carry afternoon, all of those start to hurt just a bit more.

“It’s a little bit of everything,” Young said. “OK, a lot of everything.”

But that’s the life of a running back.

“It’s the nature of the game,” he said. “Something’s going to hurt.”

Touchdown or no touchdown.