Kevin Steele scored on a one-yard dive with 4:43 to play and the Olive Branch (OB) defense held Nansemond-Suffolk (NS) as the Bulldogs defeated the Saints 13-6 in Pop Warner Junior Pee Wee football action at Nansemond-Suffolk Academy on Saturday.

Sam Howell scored the lone touchdown for the Saints, who saw their record drop to 3-3.

The Saints got rolling early when C.J. White picked off an Andre Perez pass at the OB 47. Howell and Curtis Hanson took turns running the ball through the Bulldog defense, culminating in an 18-yard dash by Howell up the middle that gave his team a 6-0 advantage.

Kevin Steele ran the kickoff back to the OB 41, and threw an eight-yard pass to Zachary Coles on first down. Coles bolted 15 yards on the next play, and Jamaal Perkins chewed up 15 of his own on the next three plays to get to the NS 21.

On the first play of the second quarter, Coles took a reverse around the left side. After a few yards, the Saint defense started to close in. Coles turned around, bolted back toward the center of the field, and outran the defense into the right corner of the endzone to tie the score.

Neither team threatened throughout the second and third quarters, but a fourth-down pass by Will Crenshaw fell incomplete, giving the Bulldogs the ball at the NSA 39 with seconds left in the third quarter. Steele and Perkins got their team a first down on the 27 as the quarter ended, and Coles took another reverse around the end for another first down at the 15.

A rush by Perez and an offsides penalty got the Bulldogs to the seven, and Tywon Darden burst through the middle to reach the one. On the next play, Steele scored his first touchdown of the afternoon, and the Bulldogs had the lead. He then broke through for the extra point, extending the lead to 13-6.

The Saints didn’t quit. Crenshaw took the kickoff to his team’s 47, and Howell raced 26 yards in the next three plays to move to the 26. But the Bulldogs pushed he and Hunt Odom back five yards on the next two plays, and Crenshaw threw an incomplete pass on third down. On fourth-and-15, White made a diving catch of another Crenshaw pass, but he was three yards short of a first down, and the Saints’ threat was over.

Nansemond-Suffolk will visit the Bennett’s Creek Warriors at 1:15 p.m. next Saturday.