Clarke County @ Riverheads
- Thread starter gladiatorgrad10
- Start date
No surprise. The way Riverheads makes half time adjustments, that margin may widen.
The Gladiators won this game tonight pretty much the way I expected them to.....by presenting Clarke with an extra weapon to defend, which kept them from keying on CCC. Yes, he may have scored three of the four touchdowns tonight, and you could even argue that he scored the three most important ones, but the Big Red does not win this game tonight without the exceptional game of his running mate, sophomore Jonathan Talbott.
Talbott had several key runs tonight that kept drives alive and scored the remaining RHS touchdown. Ironically however he was also on the losing end of the only turnover that I remember either team having, a first quarter fumble that gave Clarke the ball in Riverheads territory and presented them with the chance to score first. As it turned out, the Gladiators kept them from scoring at that juncture but according to our radio guys, the fumble made Talbott mad enough to play the rest of the game with an even stronger determination to win.
After that first exchange, RHS scored on its second possession and in short order when CCC broke some tackles at the line of scrimmage, cut to his left and raced down the far sideline for an 86 yard score. Zac Brooks missed the PAT to leave the score at 6-0.
Clarke then started its first TD drive, which would roll over into the second quarter. However, once they got into the red zone, things got a little chaotic. First a holding penalty wiped out a strong run that would have had them down inside the five. Riverheads took advantage of that penalty and forced the Eagles to go for the field goal.
RHS blocked it and after a wild scramble a Gladiator (we were never told who) ran it all the way back for a potential two-score lead. However, flags had flown in the middle of the play and it was obvious it was coming back. A clear call was never made on the flag but the assumption was that Riverheads had illegally hurdled the line to block the kick.
Good time to address the officiating. This was not a "bad" crew tonight, certainly better than some we have seen this season, but at times they seemed disjointed and not working very well as a team. Or you might say they worked "too well" because they would throw a flag and then leave us all in suspense until they huddled and made the call. So I can't say that they missed calls or made wrong ones, but they just did not seem as cohesive a unit as you would hope to see at this level.
Back to that Clarke sequence, the Eagles eventually scored to take their only lead of the night at 7-6, but the second quarter fireworks were just getting started. The Gladiators answered immediately on a very well designed drive that featured much more Talbott than CCC. The sophomore scored from about 17 yards out and Brooks' PAT made it 13-7.
At that point, there were about 5 minutes left in the half and everyone knew the game rested on whether Clarke could score again or if RHS could stop them and put an insurance score on the board. The Gladiators did exactly that as you saw by the halftime score above, but there was certainly plenty of drama involved in getting us to that point.
The Big Red drove steadily into the red zone, holding on to their time-outs as long as possible. But when the clock rolled under 30 seconds and they had only one left, we started to wonder if a field goal might come into play.
As it turned out, it did and Brooks knocked it through for a 16-7 lead......at least temporarily. However Clarke had been flagged for being offside, giving RHS the ball around the 1 1/2 yard line. It was fourth down and there were only four seconds left before the break, leaving the Big Red with a huge decision to make.
Coach Norcross said after the game that he usually does not take points off the board but apparently the players convinced him otherwise and CCC took it in for arguably the most important TD of the game as the horn sounded. Brooks added point number 20 as the teams headed for the break.
The third quarter was almost all Clarke, at least in terms of time of possession. They had the ball for two sustained drives in the quarter, and Riverheads only managed a three and out in between them. But Clarke failed to score on the first one and the second one stretched over into the fourth quarter.
They eventually scored on a fourth down pass play to trim the lead to 20-13 but they missed the PAT. However, along the way, they had been somewhat disorganized and had to use two of their time outs early, which ultimately worked against them.
After that second Clarke TD, RHS took the kickoff and drove steadily down the field for their fourth and clinching touchdown. They had to convert two fourth downs along the way, one that required the chains, but eventually CCC pushed it across around the five minute mark.
Clarke had one final chance but Austin Roberts snuffed that out and brought the loudest ovation of the night from the Gladiator faithful when he dropped the ball carrier on a fourth down play around midfield. The Gladiators were then able to run out the clock.
As the crowd filed out, word in the stands was that Strasburg might have held on to beat Central 7-6, which would have given the Gladiators another home game next week. But there must have been a gap in time between the Falcons' touchdown and their winning two-point conversion, since we now know they won 8-7. So the Big Red will head back to Woodstock next Friday night for the Region B title game where we all hope we see anything BUT another 8-7 game!
If there was anything that surprised me tonight about Clarke, it was their lack of big play capability. They ran their offense quite efficiently and to the best of my recollection, had no turnovers. But they seldom gained more than 10 yards on any given play, and that bend-but-don't break defense on the part of Riverheads, along with the lack of time outs, kept them from getting back in the game once it got to the final two score margin.
Should be a rip snorter next week up in Woodstock. Let's hope for decent weather. We did luck out tonight in that department as it was a great night for football.
Talbott had several key runs tonight that kept drives alive and scored the remaining RHS touchdown. Ironically however he was also on the losing end of the only turnover that I remember either team having, a first quarter fumble that gave Clarke the ball in Riverheads territory and presented them with the chance to score first. As it turned out, the Gladiators kept them from scoring at that juncture but according to our radio guys, the fumble made Talbott mad enough to play the rest of the game with an even stronger determination to win.
After that first exchange, RHS scored on its second possession and in short order when CCC broke some tackles at the line of scrimmage, cut to his left and raced down the far sideline for an 86 yard score. Zac Brooks missed the PAT to leave the score at 6-0.
Clarke then started its first TD drive, which would roll over into the second quarter. However, once they got into the red zone, things got a little chaotic. First a holding penalty wiped out a strong run that would have had them down inside the five. Riverheads took advantage of that penalty and forced the Eagles to go for the field goal.
RHS blocked it and after a wild scramble a Gladiator (we were never told who) ran it all the way back for a potential two-score lead. However, flags had flown in the middle of the play and it was obvious it was coming back. A clear call was never made on the flag but the assumption was that Riverheads had illegally hurdled the line to block the kick.
Good time to address the officiating. This was not a "bad" crew tonight, certainly better than some we have seen this season, but at times they seemed disjointed and not working very well as a team. Or you might say they worked "too well" because they would throw a flag and then leave us all in suspense until they huddled and made the call. So I can't say that they missed calls or made wrong ones, but they just did not seem as cohesive a unit as you would hope to see at this level.
Back to that Clarke sequence, the Eagles eventually scored to take their only lead of the night at 7-6, but the second quarter fireworks were just getting started. The Gladiators answered immediately on a very well designed drive that featured much more Talbott than CCC. The sophomore scored from about 17 yards out and Brooks' PAT made it 13-7.
At that point, there were about 5 minutes left in the half and everyone knew the game rested on whether Clarke could score again or if RHS could stop them and put an insurance score on the board. The Gladiators did exactly that as you saw by the halftime score above, but there was certainly plenty of drama involved in getting us to that point.
The Big Red drove steadily into the red zone, holding on to their time-outs as long as possible. But when the clock rolled under 30 seconds and they had only one left, we started to wonder if a field goal might come into play.
As it turned out, it did and Brooks knocked it through for a 16-7 lead......at least temporarily. However Clarke had been flagged for being offside, giving RHS the ball around the 1 1/2 yard line. It was fourth down and there were only four seconds left before the break, leaving the Big Red with a huge decision to make.
Coach Norcross said after the game that he usually does not take points off the board but apparently the players convinced him otherwise and CCC took it in for arguably the most important TD of the game as the horn sounded. Brooks added point number 20 as the teams headed for the break.
The third quarter was almost all Clarke, at least in terms of time of possession. They had the ball for two sustained drives in the quarter, and Riverheads only managed a three and out in between them. But Clarke failed to score on the first one and the second one stretched over into the fourth quarter.
They eventually scored on a fourth down pass play to trim the lead to 20-13 but they missed the PAT. However, along the way, they had been somewhat disorganized and had to use two of their time outs early, which ultimately worked against them.
After that second Clarke TD, RHS took the kickoff and drove steadily down the field for their fourth and clinching touchdown. They had to convert two fourth downs along the way, one that required the chains, but eventually CCC pushed it across around the five minute mark.
Clarke had one final chance but Austin Roberts snuffed that out and brought the loudest ovation of the night from the Gladiator faithful when he dropped the ball carrier on a fourth down play around midfield. The Gladiators were then able to run out the clock.
As the crowd filed out, word in the stands was that Strasburg might have held on to beat Central 7-6, which would have given the Gladiators another home game next week. But there must have been a gap in time between the Falcons' touchdown and their winning two-point conversion, since we now know they won 8-7. So the Big Red will head back to Woodstock next Friday night for the Region B title game where we all hope we see anything BUT another 8-7 game!
If there was anything that surprised me tonight about Clarke, it was their lack of big play capability. They ran their offense quite efficiently and to the best of my recollection, had no turnovers. But they seldom gained more than 10 yards on any given play, and that bend-but-don't break defense on the part of Riverheads, along with the lack of time outs, kept them from getting back in the game once it got to the final two score margin.
Should be a rip snorter next week up in Woodstock. Let's hope for decent weather. We did luck out tonight in that department as it was a great night for football.
Really enjoy your posts!
Do you take notes during the game or do you do all of this from memory?
