If you were to turn the clock back about three weeks, there were two major topics of conversation among Shenandoah District football fans. Number One: Is unbeaten Staunton the real deal or have they just played a soft schedule? and Number Two: Riverheads finally lost a game and they are not blowing out the other teams they face, so what is "wrong" with the Gladiators? Well here we are after a few more games and it is possible that answers to both those questions have already been given or soon will be.
In the case of Staunton, their game six seemed to indicate that yes, they really WERE the real deal when they scored three times in the final five minutes to turn back Stuarts Draft, a team that is still very much in contention for the district crown. But since then, they needed a miracle to squeeze by Fort Defiance and then finally tasted defeat for the first time Friday night in a 22-17 home loss to Buffalo Gap.
Meanwhile, Riverheads still has just the Lord Botetourt loss as their only blemish but until Friday night's 49-14 romp over Fort Defiance, they had not really "pounded" anybody since the first two games of the season when they put 61 and 55 points on the board against Waynesboro and Parry McCluer. So does Friday night's Fort win mean they are "back" or did they ever really go anywhere in the first place?
All of that speculation sets the stage for Riverheads to make a trip to Gypsy Hill Park Friday night on what sounds like it will be a perfect night for football and we should have some real answers after that game. Meanwhile, Stuarts Draft, the only other district team with just one loss will host Fort Defiance, and a pair of two-loss teams, Buffalo Gap and Wilson, will meet out at the Gap.
Regardless of what happens in Staunton Friday night, the district race will still not be settled because Stuarts Draft then travels to Riverheads next week for the season finale. However that is a case of Cart Before Cougar, although it will indeed be interesting if that turns out to be the "championship game" after all, when Staunton and even Wilson were in the title picture for the entire first half of the season.
So let's analyze these three games, along with Waynesboro hosting Turner Ashby. (Notice by the way that I am failing to mention that I only went 2-2 in last week's four-game slate.)
RIVERHEADS AT STAUNTON: The Gladiators have only lost once to Staunton and that was during the (then Leemen's) march to the state final when they almost took down mighty Appomattox. In every other year, RHS has handled them easily. Since The Storm has struggled mightily these past two weeks and Riverheads was clicking on all cylinders Friday at the Fort, it certainly looks on paper as if the Gladiators should prevail. After all there was a 33-point difference in what happened at Fort Defiance on consecutive Friday nights. Having said that, teams can sometimes come out hopping mad after suffering a loss, and if Staunton does that, they most definitely have the athletes to give Riverheads trouble. I will go with the Big Red by about 2-3 scores but Staunton will put up some points. I look for a 49-28 kind of game as opposed to a 28-7.
WILSON AT BUFFALO GAP: Seems like we have had a toss-up game every week and this week this has to be it. Neither team has a shot to capture the regular season title, but they are each very much in the mix for playoff action. So this one will be crucial. Having seen both when they came to Riverheads, I was impressed with Gap's defense, but yet they only managed to score once on the Big Red. Wilson on the other hand scored three times in Greenville and displayed a potent passing game, but they failed to stop anything Riverheads did. Just on a hunch, I will go with the Bison by something like 34-28, but if they come out of the locker room thinking they are still playing Staunton, they just might get "stung" by the Hornets.
FORT DEFIANCE AT STUARTS DRAFT: The Indians are still a young team but the improvement has been there and they will not be able to sneak up on anybody for the foreseeable future. The Cougars were destroyed at then powerful Luray early in the season, in addition to their loss to Staunton, so they too need a win to solidify their playoff standing. Fort may keep it close for a while but look for a Cougar victory somewhere in the 35-7 range, which will make SD's trip to Greenville next week pretty interesting, as we have known all along that it would be.
TURNER ASHBY AT WAYNESBORO: This one is not meaningful in terms of the 'Doah so let's just state the obvious. Waynesboro had high hopes this year but just didn't put the pieces together. They will fight to the end but TA should take this one easily.
