If I had to choose one word to sum up this one, it would be "complete" and Coach Casto hinted at such on his post-game TV interview. The Gladiators just clicked on all cylinders, made almost no mistakes, and controlled every aspect of the game from start to finish. I don't know if they keep time of possession in high school ball, but the Big Red probably had the ball for 36-38 of the 48 minutes, and Wilson's touchdown drive was their only trip into Riverheads' territory all night.
RHS took the opening kickoff and drove 80 yards all on the ground, consuming the first 7 minutes off the clock before Harrison Schaefer swept around the left end from about 10 yards out for the first score of the game. Then, almost as if it was scripted this way, the defense held Wilson to a three-and-out and turned the ball right back over to the offense.
The Gladiators moved into scoring position quicker this time, helped along by a nice 43-yard bootleg by quarterback Garrett Campbell, who frantically directed traffic as he was skirting the sideline in front of the Wilson bench. As a very quick first quarter ended, the Big Red was on the verge of scoring again, which Colt Miller did from the two yard line on the first play of the second quarter.
Following that second score, Wilson got a bad break when Garrett McBee inadvertently touched his knee down at the 6 yard line as he was receiving the kick-off, putting the Hornets in a huge hole. They clawed their way out of the shadow of their own goal post however and strung together a couple of first downs, before McBee atoned for his error by booming a terrific punt all the way down to the RHS 1-yard line.
With about 5-6 minutes left before halftime, the odds might have been against Riverheads being able to navigate 99 yards for a third touchdown, but they did exactly that in what may have been their best drive of the season. It was all on the ground (the Big Red didn't attempt a pass in this drive or any other tonight) and the longest run of the possession was probably 15 yards. Miller scored his second TD of the game with just 10 seconds left in what was probably RHS' most important score of the game.
Following the aforementioned nice halftime performance and salute to the Wilson Hall of Fame inductees, the Hornets came out newly inspired and took less than three minutes to march down the field for a TD that briefly appeared to get them back in the game. Jesse Trent was the main workhorse but I am not sure if he is the one that actually scored the TD. McBee's PAT made it 21-7.
Instead of Wilson seizing the momentum at that point, that score actually made Riverheads step up its game as the Gladiators added two third-quarter TDs of their own to put the game away. The first was spurred on by a nice kick-off return, I believe by Campbell, and the second was triggered by Schaefer repeating his East Rockingham interception in almost the same fashion and at almost the exact same place on the field. He didn't score this time, but did add his second and third touchdown of the night before all was said and done. Landon Diehl, who ran the ball extremely hard all night, scored the other RHS third-quarter TD.
Things got a little chippy at times in the third as Wilson was flagged for two personal fouls and following one of the RHS TDs, both teams were hit with one. But things quickly calmed down and the game finished without incident.
Schaefer's final TD came at the 9 minute mark of the 4th quarter to make it 42-7 and start the running clock. Wilson failed to move the ball in its final possession and the Gladiator subs finished things out with Jeffrey Maddox, Dalton Jordan, and Jackson Shover running the ball effectively enough to kill the final six minutes of a very quick game that ended by about 8:50.
With the big rivalry win, the Gladiators move to 8-0 on the season and will finish at home with Stonewall and Stuarts Draft. Rumor has it that their current hold on the number one seed in the 1-A East could come right down to the wire against Essex, but that is too close to call at the moment. Wilson's 2-A playoff hopes would appear to now be on the bubble, especially with a tough trip to East Rock coming up next. They then finish at home against Page.
