Riverheads got back on the winning track tonight with a road win over the first-year Rocktown Raptors up in Harrisonburg. An impressive Big Red crowd followed the team, as we knew they would, and enjoyed a successful visit to the Raptors' very nice field.
Although the Big Red treated its fans to the first running-clock win of the season, in all honesty this was not an especially smooth performance and the Gladiators will have to cut down on some of the mistake they made tonight if they hope to beat either or both of their next two opponents......Wilson and Christiansburg.
Yes they tallied seven touchdowns from five different players.....yes they scored in every quarter......but the Gladiators also left two fumbles laying on the turf for Rocktown to pick up.......they did not defend the pass at all well when Rocktown scored its only TD...and they simply could not get their own passing game going the few times they tried. Those same mistakes will be fatal against better teams if they continue.
Fullback Carson Brooks got the party started with a 48 yard burst up the middle on the Big Red's first possession. He then proceeded to play lights out defense for the rest of the period, as he recorded some solo tackles and pounced on the first Raptor fumble of the night. Jonathan Talbott and Jackson Fitzgerald each scored in the rather long first quarter as the Gladiators took a 20-0 lead.
Quarterback Levi Dunlap sneaked one in from four yards out in the second quarter for Riverheads' only score. They had another deep possession but coughed it up on a fumble inside the 10 as the teams went to the locker room with a 27-0 score on the board.
Rocktown took the opening kickoff in the third quarter and opened up their playbook for a halfback option pass. The pass itself was awful and the receiver had time to check his e-mail before it finally came down, but that was because Riverheads did not have a defender within 20 yards of him. He hauled in the wounded duck in Gladiator territory and the same receiver caught a much nicer pass down around the 1 moments later, before they sneaked it across for their only score of the game.
Following that hometown TD, the Gladiators responded with three of their most explosive plays of the game. First Talbott took the R-town kickoff and darted up the far sideline all the way down to the 25. That led to Big Play number two.......Dunlap's second QB sneak of the game.
Now what was so "explosive" about a QB keeper you might ask? Well that play is designed to only get you a couple or three yards and potentially a first down, but when you keep digging and your line keeps pushing, and you can take that "sneak" play for 14 yards and a touchdown, why not do it? I believe the big boys call it a "tush push."
Whatever name you put on it, that score put the visitors ahead 34-6 but the best was yet to come. On Rocktown's next possession, they went to the air, but Fitzgerald was Jackson-on-the-Spot as he stepped in front of it, cut to his right, and then sidestepped the only guy who had a chance to get him as he returned the ball for a 60 yard pick six. That TD and Zac Brooks' fifth PAT of the night made it 41-6 and set the running clock in motion.
With subs finishing out the action, Copper Arehart (whom I have to admit I had never even heard of before tonight) swept left end from about 8 yards out for the final Big Red TD. The second-string kicker (name escapes me and I don't have a roster to refer to) converted the PAT for the final point of the night. He is now 2-2 on the season and his soccer style delivery will no doubt carry the Big Red next year when Brooks graduates.
With the win, the Gladiators are now 3-1 on the season, but district play resumes next week and a much-improved Wilson team will visit RHS for Homecoming, followed by a road trip to Christiansburg. From everything I have heard, the other games tonight went as expected, with Gap, Fort, Staunton, Wilson, and Draft all winning, with only Waynesboro falling tonight. Therefore the district race has the potential to be a five or even six-team competition, but something tells me the teams will start to separate themselves in the next week or two.
