In one of the most competitive games I have seen on any level in quite a while, visiting Riverheads scored on its first play from scrimmage, just 14 seconds into the game, and then held on for dear life to finally escape Buffalo Gap with a hard-fought win. It was the Gladiators' first game in three weeks and with the win, they are now 3-1 on the season.
There are two things you can likely figure out before I even tell you.........one is that neither team had any real success stopping what the other was doing on offense........ and two is that the game was decided by two-point conversions, with the Gladiators successfully converting 5 out of 6, while the Bison only managed 3 out of 6.
Ironically the one Riverheads missed was its very first, which might have left the door open for the Bison to take the lead after their first score. But the Gap missed theirs as well, leaving the teams tied at 6-6. Riverheads then scored again to take a 14-6 lead but of course the Gap answered again. However they missed their conversion making the score 14-12 and RHS' third score made it 22-12. The Bison closed to within 22-20 at the half and would continue for the rest of the game to answer every Riverheads TD with one of their own, but because of their two-point success, the Big Red never once allowed the Bison to take the lead or even tie the score again.
After three quarters of non-stop offensive action, the game actually featured two huge momentum swings on fourth-quarter defensive gems. The first came very early in the quarter with Riverheads leading only 30-28. They had driven into Bison territory, hoping to pad their lead, when freshman running back Jonathan Talbott, who had the game of his life by the way, was stripped of the ball while struggling to gain extra yardage. The Bison recovered at their own 35 and for the first time in the game, the home fans felt as if they might be able to move in for a go-ahead score.
They proceeded to move the ball into Riverheads territory but then disaster struck as they too committed their one and only turnover of the game in a play once again caused by a running back struggling for extra yardage. However, this time the result was more direct as Talbott atoned for his fumble by scooping up the Bison drop on a clean hop and taking it about 55 yards untouched to put Riverheads ahead 38-28.
However the game was by no means over as the Gap came back almost immediately to close to within 38-36 as the clock ticked down to under 2 1/2 minutes. Ordinarily one might have expected the Bison to go for an onside kick at that point, but there was only one problem with that. Each team had been pooching and squibbing every kick all night long so as to prevent any long runbacks and therefore there would have been no element of surprise to anything creative by that point.
So instead Riverheads fell on this latest one around its own 40, knowing that all they had to do was kill those final couple of minutes. But instead of running any kind of delay game, Mr. Talbott decided to settle the issue as he took a handoff, swept around left end and pretty much followed his own footsteps from the previous touchdown, as he scored without a Bison coming close to making a tackle. The successful PAT made the score 46-36 but the Bison did not go quietly.
They pushed across one more score with 35 seconds left to account for the final tally but missed the PAT, and when the ensuing kickoff failed to go the required 10 yards, the Gladiators were finally able to run out the clock and secure the big rivalry win.
The heroes were many for the Big Red. Talbott scored at least two other TDs besides the two already mentioned. He scored the game's first TD on a nifty 50+ yard counter play, which was each team's favorite play of the night, and I am pretty sure he also scored the Gladiators' only third quarter TD that put them up 30-20.
Gladiator QB Ethan Mulcahy factored in prominently on at least four of the Big Red's successful PATs as he bootlegged two of them in and found receivers in the end zone on two other occasions. I am sure Bison fans had their own playmakers but I did not get a program and there was no PA announcer, so I have no names to report. If my sources are accurate, tonight's big shootout was typical of Gap games so far this season and the loss was only their second of the year.
The Riverheads JVs will hit the road again next week as they travel to Wilson. Of course before that, we have that little matter of the trip that the Bison varsity team will make to Greenville Friday night. Each team will very much need a victory in that one as the VHSL points were released this week and due to Riverheads' loss to Lord Botetourt, they are uncharacteristically in third place in Region 1-B, facing an uphill climb. The Bison are actually ahead of them in second place, and would like nothing better than to snap their 15-game losing streak to the Gladiators so they can maintain that lead. Sounds like the weather will be nice, if maybe a little breezy, so either be there or watch on NFHS.
There are two things you can likely figure out before I even tell you.........one is that neither team had any real success stopping what the other was doing on offense........ and two is that the game was decided by two-point conversions, with the Gladiators successfully converting 5 out of 6, while the Bison only managed 3 out of 6.
Ironically the one Riverheads missed was its very first, which might have left the door open for the Bison to take the lead after their first score. But the Gap missed theirs as well, leaving the teams tied at 6-6. Riverheads then scored again to take a 14-6 lead but of course the Gap answered again. However they missed their conversion making the score 14-12 and RHS' third score made it 22-12. The Bison closed to within 22-20 at the half and would continue for the rest of the game to answer every Riverheads TD with one of their own, but because of their two-point success, the Big Red never once allowed the Bison to take the lead or even tie the score again.
After three quarters of non-stop offensive action, the game actually featured two huge momentum swings on fourth-quarter defensive gems. The first came very early in the quarter with Riverheads leading only 30-28. They had driven into Bison territory, hoping to pad their lead, when freshman running back Jonathan Talbott, who had the game of his life by the way, was stripped of the ball while struggling to gain extra yardage. The Bison recovered at their own 35 and for the first time in the game, the home fans felt as if they might be able to move in for a go-ahead score.
They proceeded to move the ball into Riverheads territory but then disaster struck as they too committed their one and only turnover of the game in a play once again caused by a running back struggling for extra yardage. However, this time the result was more direct as Talbott atoned for his fumble by scooping up the Bison drop on a clean hop and taking it about 55 yards untouched to put Riverheads ahead 38-28.
However the game was by no means over as the Gap came back almost immediately to close to within 38-36 as the clock ticked down to under 2 1/2 minutes. Ordinarily one might have expected the Bison to go for an onside kick at that point, but there was only one problem with that. Each team had been pooching and squibbing every kick all night long so as to prevent any long runbacks and therefore there would have been no element of surprise to anything creative by that point.
So instead Riverheads fell on this latest one around its own 40, knowing that all they had to do was kill those final couple of minutes. But instead of running any kind of delay game, Mr. Talbott decided to settle the issue as he took a handoff, swept around left end and pretty much followed his own footsteps from the previous touchdown, as he scored without a Bison coming close to making a tackle. The successful PAT made the score 46-36 but the Bison did not go quietly.
They pushed across one more score with 35 seconds left to account for the final tally but missed the PAT, and when the ensuing kickoff failed to go the required 10 yards, the Gladiators were finally able to run out the clock and secure the big rivalry win.
The heroes were many for the Big Red. Talbott scored at least two other TDs besides the two already mentioned. He scored the game's first TD on a nifty 50+ yard counter play, which was each team's favorite play of the night, and I am pretty sure he also scored the Gladiators' only third quarter TD that put them up 30-20.
Gladiator QB Ethan Mulcahy factored in prominently on at least four of the Big Red's successful PATs as he bootlegged two of them in and found receivers in the end zone on two other occasions. I am sure Bison fans had their own playmakers but I did not get a program and there was no PA announcer, so I have no names to report. If my sources are accurate, tonight's big shootout was typical of Gap games so far this season and the loss was only their second of the year.
The Riverheads JVs will hit the road again next week as they travel to Wilson. Of course before that, we have that little matter of the trip that the Bison varsity team will make to Greenville Friday night. Each team will very much need a victory in that one as the VHSL points were released this week and due to Riverheads' loss to Lord Botetourt, they are uncharacteristically in third place in Region 1-B, facing an uphill climb. The Bison are actually ahead of them in second place, and would like nothing better than to snap their 15-game losing streak to the Gladiators so they can maintain that lead. Sounds like the weather will be nice, if maybe a little breezy, so either be there or watch on NFHS.
