Brunson closes career on a high in Shrine Bowl
T.J. Brunson’s season got off to a slow start but finished with a flurry.
In his final high school game, the Richland Northeast linebacker captured Defensive MVP honors for the South Carolina squad in the 54-39 loss to North Carolina on Saturday in the 79th annual Shrine Bowl at Wofford College.
On a day which featured a record-setting offensive performance, Brunson registered a game-high 13 tackles, one sack and 1½ for loss. The Louisville commit also delivered the game’s biggest hit when he drilled North Carolina running back Cordell Brown running out-of-bounds.
Brunson was flagged on the play for a personal foul, although replays showed Brown was still inbounds on the play.
“I am happy to finish my high school career with this,” said Brunson, who had offseason hip surgery and was limited during the preseason. “I got to play with a great group of guys and loved my whole time up here. The whole experience was fun.
“I am trying to not to stay content and be complacent. I am trying to get better and going up from here.”
With his high school career complete, Brunson can turn his attention to where he’s going to play college football. He committed to Louisville over the summer but is getting more interest from South Carolina since Will Muschamp took over as coach.
Brunson was the first person Muschamp visited as USC’s coach. He’ll will visit the Gamecocks on Jan. 15. He already made his official visit to Louisville.
“I’m trying to feel where I am home at and where I can make a difference in the program. That is my main focus,” Brunson said.
Dorman’s Collin Hill was the Offensive MVP for the SC squad. The Colorado State commit threw for 192 yards and three touchdowns. Byrnes’ Chavis Dawkins led South Carolina receivers with six catches for 62 yards and two TDs.
Lower Richland’s Larry Collins had four catches for 55 yards, including a one-handed, 11-yard TD grab from Austin Scott in the second quarter.
North Carolina quarterback and Oklahoma commit Austin Kendall won NC’s Offensive MVP honors by throwing for 203 yards on 14 of 17 passing and three touchdowns as the Tar Heels snapped a three-game losing streak to the Sandlappers.
The 93 combined points scored between the teams broke the previous record of 80 set in SC’s 66-14 win in 2000.
Powell, a Clemson commit, had 264 yards of total offense and two touchdowns, including a 99-yard kickoff return to put NC up 21-6 in the first quarter.
The Tar Heels stretched the lead to 35-12 with 12:52 left in the second quarter when Kendall hit Virginia Tech commit Devine Deablo on a 24-yard touchdown pass.
South Carolina answered with a pair of touchdowns, and K.J. Chamberlin’s 50-yard interception return in the second quarter got the Sandlappers within 35-26 with 1:46 left in the second quarter.
The Sandlappers trimmed their deficit to as few as nine points in the second half on two different occasions but couldn’t get the big play to draw any closer.
TURNING POINT
Leading 21-12 in the first quarter, North Carolina scored two touchdowns in a 3:17 span. Rico Dowdle scored on a 15-yard run to make it 28-12 with 1:09 left in the first quarter. On SC’s next possession, Tyler Pistorio blocked Matt Graveley’s punt and NC recovered on the SC 21. Three players later, Kendall hit Diablo on a 24-yard pass to make it 35-12 with 12:52 left in the second quarter.
THEY SAID IT
“There were certain things we couldn’t do to stop them from scoring.” – T.J. Brunson, South Carolina linebacker
“After halftime, I thought we were going to come out and win it because we had the momentum.” – Larry Collins, South Carolina receiver
“When they jumped on us early, we came back and really felt good about it at halftime. Then we made some mistakes in the second half and let them get going again. Once they got going again, we couldn’t put them out,” Wayne Green, South Carolina coach
KEY NUMBERS
36: Average yards per kickoff return for North Carolina
3: Combined number of blocked kicks and punts for NC
788: Combined total offense between the teams
HOW THEY SCORED
1st Quarter
NC – Emmons 15 run (Kiser kick), 13:21
NC – Powell 27 pass from Kendall (Kiser kick), 7:11
SC – Dawkins 25 pass from Hill (kick failed), 4:19
NC – Powell 99 kickoff return (Kiser kick), 4:06
SC – Collins 11 pass from Scott (pass failed), 2:41
NC – Dowdle 15 run (Kiser kick), 1:09
2nd Quarter
NC – Deablo 24 pass from Kendall (Kiser kick), 12:52
SC – Dawkins 5 pass from Hill (Gravely kick), 5:02
SC – Chamberlin 50 interception return (Gravely kick), 1:46
3rd Quarter
NC – McCarter 32 interception return (Kiser kick), 9:17
SC – Vaughn 22 pass from Hill (Gravely kick), 5:50
NC – Kendall 1 run (kick failed), 1:45
4th Quarter
SC – Feaster 3 run (kick failed), 7:00
NC – Dowdle 13 pass from Kendall (Kiser kick), 2:26
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing: NC: Emmons 11-89, Dowdle 3-19, Parham 2-12, McKoy 7-9, Brown 1-9, Powell 1-7, Deans 1-4. SC: Brown 9-70, Feaster 14-55, Hill 3-17, Werts 2 (-3).
Passing: NC: Kendall 14-17-1 203, Parham 2-3-1 5, Powell 0-1-0 0. SC: Hill 15-28-1 192, Scott 11-20-1 119.
Receiving: Dowdle 5-48, Powell 4-54, Deablo 2-64, Brown 2-14, Emmons 1-15, Deans 1-7, Watson 1-6. SC: Dawkins 6-62, Collins 4-55, Martin 4-44, Denmark 3-50, Vaughn 3-45, Feaster 3-11, Lindsey 1-34, Hopper 1-5, Grate 1-5.
This story was originally published December 19, 2015 at 8:54 PM with the headline "Brunson closes career on a high in Shrine Bowl ."