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<p><strong>LowcoSports.com</strong></p>
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<p>The Whale Branch Warriors survived injuries to key players all season, but they couldn’t hang without their workhorse Friday night.</p>
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<p>With star running back Joseph Hicks sidelined by an ankle injury suffered last week, the Warriors’ offense stalled, and C.E. Murray turned in a dominant effort on both sides of the ball to end Whale Branch’s season with a 47-0 loss in the Class 1A Lower State semifinals.</p>
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<p>The teams traded punts to start the game before War Eagles star Tyree Prunes hit Henry Evans III for a 76-yard touchdown to open the scoring. The Warriors twice drove inside the 10 looking for the answer, but they were stopped on downs at the 7 on the first effort, and the second turned sour. After a bad snap on third-and-goal from the 5 pushed Whale Branch back to the 19, Prunes picked off the fourth-down pass and returned it to the 40, then finished off a drive with a 7-yard TD run to make it 14-0.</p>
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<p>The Warriors were still in it and set to receive the second-half kickoff, but too more mishandled snaps led to disaster, as the War Eagles took over at the 2 and Quentarius Grant punched in the first of his three touchdown runs to put C.E. Murray up 22-0 at halftime.</p>
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<p>Whale Branch tried to hang in a bit longer, forcing a fumble on the goal line, but Amond Myers’ picked off a pass and took it 45 yards for a score to push the margin to 28-0. The War Eagles’ defense cashed in again on the next possession, as Justin Graham scooped up a fumble and went 45 yards to the end zone for a crushing blow.</p>
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<p>Grant added two more touchdown runs in the fourth quarter, and the War Eagles forced a turnover to preserve the shutout.</p>
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<p>Whale Branch finishes the season with an 8-2 record and their deepest playoff run since 2015. C.E. Murray (7-1) will take on Bamberg-Ehrhardt in the Lower State final.</p>
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