Considering how nasty the weather has turned here in the later evening hours, fans of Riverheads and Parry McCluer were lucky earlier this evening to complete their JV game with just a little bit of a drizzle falling. The visiting Gladiators prevailed 22-0 in a quirky little game that in all fairness to the Blues was much closer than the score indicates.
Since I just mentioned "fairness," before I review the game itself I have to mention something that surprised and somewhat annoyed me tonight and a few other RHS fans expressed their displeasure about it as well. Some of you may consider this a nothing issue but we discovered tonight that Parry McCluer offers a senior citizen discount to their games. Sounds nice huh? But get this part.......it ONLY applies to fans of theirs. Any senior citizen who is not a Buena Vista resident pays full price.
I have to admit that in all my years of attending high school sports, this is the first time I can ever recall an admission policy where home fans (at least some of them) were charged a different price than visiting fans. You can agree or disagree, but I found it tacky at best and I wonder if the rest of the Pioneer does this and/or if the VHSL knows or approves. Senior citizen discounts at restaurants, etc. were invented to show respect for seniors and in this case, PM is making the statement that THEIR senior citizens deserve more respect than any others. Not cool in my opinion. OK, off my soap box and on to the game.
As the game began, the RHS coaching staff questioned something else and although it took until halftime, they finally won their argument. I am referring to the length of time a quarter is supposed to be. In this case, the first and second quarters were only 8 minutes. Riverheads has always been accustomed to 10, a point that the head coach made throughout the first half. He again brought up the subject to an official just before the second half kick-off and it worked, because the final two periods were each 10 minutes. You would think there would be a statewide standard for game minutes.
OK, to FINALLY get to the game..........due to the shortened time in the first half, the Blues almost completely controlled play. They ate up the ENTIRE first quarter in a drive that carried them into the red zone. So Riverheads did not even touch the ball until they intercepted a pass on the first play of the second quarter. But they turned it right back over on downs and PM controlled most of the rest of the half. Therefore a very quick first half that only took about 28 minutes to play ended in a scoreless tie.
Riverheads then ironically did almost exactly the same thing in the third quarter. Even with 10 minutes to work with, they controlled the ball for all but the final two seconds when they pushed across the first score of the game. The two point conversion failed, leaving the door open for a possible tying touchdown and potential winning conversion.
Instead of a Blues rally, the Gladiator defense dominated the fourth quarter as they blocked a punt to lead to one touchdown and intercepted a pass to lead to another. They converted both two point conversions to account for the final margin. So as mentioned above, the Blues have every right to say it was a close game for three quarters, which it was. Hopefully everyone made it home safely before the heavier part of the rain started. Also I sure hope that poor man with the Pennsylvania tags on 81 north FINALLY turned on his lights!
With the victory Riverheads is now 2-0 but they will have the week off next week because the RHS varsity travels to Lord Botetourt that Friday and there was no corresponding JV game scheduled. Riverheads' next JV game will therefore be on Wednesday the 15th, when they will host Stuarts Draft, two days before the varsity teams square off in the Cougar Den for the first of their two much-anticipated matches this season.
Since I just mentioned "fairness," before I review the game itself I have to mention something that surprised and somewhat annoyed me tonight and a few other RHS fans expressed their displeasure about it as well. Some of you may consider this a nothing issue but we discovered tonight that Parry McCluer offers a senior citizen discount to their games. Sounds nice huh? But get this part.......it ONLY applies to fans of theirs. Any senior citizen who is not a Buena Vista resident pays full price.
I have to admit that in all my years of attending high school sports, this is the first time I can ever recall an admission policy where home fans (at least some of them) were charged a different price than visiting fans. You can agree or disagree, but I found it tacky at best and I wonder if the rest of the Pioneer does this and/or if the VHSL knows or approves. Senior citizen discounts at restaurants, etc. were invented to show respect for seniors and in this case, PM is making the statement that THEIR senior citizens deserve more respect than any others. Not cool in my opinion. OK, off my soap box and on to the game.
As the game began, the RHS coaching staff questioned something else and although it took until halftime, they finally won their argument. I am referring to the length of time a quarter is supposed to be. In this case, the first and second quarters were only 8 minutes. Riverheads has always been accustomed to 10, a point that the head coach made throughout the first half. He again brought up the subject to an official just before the second half kick-off and it worked, because the final two periods were each 10 minutes. You would think there would be a statewide standard for game minutes.
OK, to FINALLY get to the game..........due to the shortened time in the first half, the Blues almost completely controlled play. They ate up the ENTIRE first quarter in a drive that carried them into the red zone. So Riverheads did not even touch the ball until they intercepted a pass on the first play of the second quarter. But they turned it right back over on downs and PM controlled most of the rest of the half. Therefore a very quick first half that only took about 28 minutes to play ended in a scoreless tie.
Riverheads then ironically did almost exactly the same thing in the third quarter. Even with 10 minutes to work with, they controlled the ball for all but the final two seconds when they pushed across the first score of the game. The two point conversion failed, leaving the door open for a possible tying touchdown and potential winning conversion.
Instead of a Blues rally, the Gladiator defense dominated the fourth quarter as they blocked a punt to lead to one touchdown and intercepted a pass to lead to another. They converted both two point conversions to account for the final margin. So as mentioned above, the Blues have every right to say it was a close game for three quarters, which it was. Hopefully everyone made it home safely before the heavier part of the rain started. Also I sure hope that poor man with the Pennsylvania tags on 81 north FINALLY turned on his lights!
With the victory Riverheads is now 2-0 but they will have the week off next week because the RHS varsity travels to Lord Botetourt that Friday and there was no corresponding JV game scheduled. Riverheads' next JV game will therefore be on Wednesday the 15th, when they will host Stuarts Draft, two days before the varsity teams square off in the Cougar Den for the first of their two much-anticipated matches this season.
