Posted on 06/30/2009 12:24:45 PM PDT by BGHater
Canton -- Team USA's David Wilson sat on a table and stared straight ahead in Team USA's locker room, chewing on his mouthpiece and cradling the American flag in his lap.
"Special," Wilson said quietly when asked how it felt to be chosen by his teammates as the USA flag bearer for the inaugural IFAF Junior World Championship at Fawcett Stadium. "My brother is watching on the Internet right now."
Wilson's older brother, Ronald, is aboard the USS Ronald Reagan, stationed in San Diego. And, how ironic is it that Reagan's middle name was Wilson?
Wilson, from Danville, Va., and ranked the 40th-best prospect in the country by Rivals.com, led Team USA onto the field Saturday and then led it to a 78-0 rout over France in the IFAF Junior World Championship in front of a crowd of 10,145.
The 5-11, 192-pound Wilson, who will be attending Virginia Tech, led a bruising USA offense by rushing for 181 yards and scoring four touchdowns on 12 carries in boosting it to Wednesday's second-round game against Mexico.
"I gave my brother a show. It was great," said Wilson. "It was great for our country to get a victory and move on in the tournament."
Coupled with a swarming defense led by safeties Corey Lillard and Chris Payne, the Americans rolled to a 24-0 lead at the end of the first quarter and a 37-0 margin at the half.
Lillard, from Remington, Va., and headed to Virginia, was all over the field. Ranked as the 56th-best safety in the country, the 5-11, 205-pounder intercepted two passes and was in on four tackles. Payne, from Columbia, S.C., and headed to South Carolina to play for Steve Spurrier, led the team with eight tackles and had a sack.
Team USA had 16 tackles for loss through three quarters.
Just as USA head coach Chuck Kyle envisioned during his pregame speech, the Americans won the toss, deferred on the kickoff, pinned France deep in its own territory with a three-and-out and then "rolled, rolled, rolled."
It took the Americans just 68 seconds to score after forcing France to punt on the opening series, following a sack for a 12-yard loss by linebacker Tariq Edwards.
Starting at the France 37, Wilson picked up 20 yards on the first play from scrimmage, and added runs of 7 and 5 yards before teammate Brian Fields scored on a 5-yard run.
The Americans blocked a punt that resulted in a safety on France's next possession, and Wilson followed with scoring runs of 6 and 60 yards.
At one point, the USA had rolled up 509 yards to 41 for France.
I doubt any team stands much of chance against the Americans except Canada.
Give the Frogs a cheer for daring to even show up. Who knew they even played American Football over there?
Indeed, I always have respect for the people in the arena.
What? They didn’t surrender?
Nahhhhh. It wasn’t the German team.
In the round-robin format, France goes up against the Germans in the losers bracket. USA will arrive at half team to beat the Germans while the French team watches from the shade.
I hope this was "World" Football, and not "American" Football...
Ouch! That is going to leave a mark!
It’s encouraging to see that the French are playing football. I always thought that soccer was for liberal pu$$ies, albeit very well conditioned ones.
“world football” is for europussies — it’s not a sport unless people die doing it. Now WATCHING “world football” is a sport.
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