Although most of the talk this week is about the big one Friday up in Woodstock, the JV teams staged their own donnybrook in Greenville tonight and when the flags finally stopped flying (and believe me there were plenty of them!) the Junior G'men picked up their eighth win of the season with a hard-fought 20-7 win.
Despite the two-touchdown final margin, the Falcons actually controlled most of the second half and seemed poised to put this one away early in the fourth quarter but a strange sequence of events turned the tide in favor of Riverheads and the Gladiators scored twice in the final six minutes to pull out the victory.
After a scoreless first quarter, RHS was the first to dent the scoreboard with a 71-yard drive that started with several nice runs by eighth-grader Aiden Miller. But when he had to exit the game for an equipment issue, Landon Lightner carried the ball four straight times including a 10 yard sweep for the TD.
Prior to that, the Falcons had some success through the air behind 6'4" quarterback Dominic Strother, but as things turned out, their only score of the game came on an individual defensive gem. Riverheads was still leading 6-0 with only a minute and a half before the break and had the ball, but on a routine carry, Central's Isaiah Dyer simply took the ball out of the running back's hands mano y mano and waltzed untouched into the end zone from about 30 yards out. The visitors tacked on the PAT for a 7-6 halftime lead.
Central received the second half kickoff and (this is no exaggeration) possessed the ball for about 9:50 of the 10-minute third quarter. First they drove into the red zone but stopped themselves on a motion penalty after killing about half the quarter. Riverheads took over around its own 25 but on the first play from scrimmage, the runner bobbled the ball, leading to a wild scramble with Central eventually recovering about 30 yards downfield around their own 40. They then ate up the rest of the third quarter clock with their second drive of the quarter, and when the horn sounded they were knocking on the door at the RHS five.
Then came one of the longest and strangest 23-seconds the sport of football has ever seen. That amount of clock time took at least 15 minutes to play due to a variety of flags thrown on both teams. RHS was even called for pass interference in the end zone, but instead of taking advantage, the Falcons were flagged themselves on the ensuing play. Finally on the second or third attempt at a fourth and goal play, the Gladiator D got the job done and sacked Strother out near the 20, leaving the score at 7-6.
That defensive stand fired up the Big Red big time and they still had 9:37 left to take the lead. The proceeded to march the distance in short order, with the biggest play being a 32-yard sweep by Miller, with an extra 15 tacked on for a late hit. (We told you they were flag happy tonight!)
The Gladiators pushed across the go-ahead score with just under six minutes left, but failed again on the two-point conversion, leaving the door open for Central to possibly still sneak out of town with a win.
They drove into RHS territory but on a very close 4th down play, the chains held and the Big Red took over at about the three minute mark. The goal at that point was probably to run the clock out and take the victory but someone forgot to tell Miller that and he swept left end from about 40 yards out, appeared to be out of bounds, but suddenly cut back against the grain and took it to the house for the insurance TD. Central did not threaten again in the final minutes.
With the win, the Gladiators are finished for the season at 8-1. Although the RHS varsity will host Page County next week, those two JV teams met earlier in the season, so the Big Red will turn in the uniforms over the weekend and wait until next year when they have their chance to play with the big boys. Congratulations to Coach Wassick and his staff on another outstanding season.
Despite the two-touchdown final margin, the Falcons actually controlled most of the second half and seemed poised to put this one away early in the fourth quarter but a strange sequence of events turned the tide in favor of Riverheads and the Gladiators scored twice in the final six minutes to pull out the victory.
After a scoreless first quarter, RHS was the first to dent the scoreboard with a 71-yard drive that started with several nice runs by eighth-grader Aiden Miller. But when he had to exit the game for an equipment issue, Landon Lightner carried the ball four straight times including a 10 yard sweep for the TD.
Prior to that, the Falcons had some success through the air behind 6'4" quarterback Dominic Strother, but as things turned out, their only score of the game came on an individual defensive gem. Riverheads was still leading 6-0 with only a minute and a half before the break and had the ball, but on a routine carry, Central's Isaiah Dyer simply took the ball out of the running back's hands mano y mano and waltzed untouched into the end zone from about 30 yards out. The visitors tacked on the PAT for a 7-6 halftime lead.
Central received the second half kickoff and (this is no exaggeration) possessed the ball for about 9:50 of the 10-minute third quarter. First they drove into the red zone but stopped themselves on a motion penalty after killing about half the quarter. Riverheads took over around its own 25 but on the first play from scrimmage, the runner bobbled the ball, leading to a wild scramble with Central eventually recovering about 30 yards downfield around their own 40. They then ate up the rest of the third quarter clock with their second drive of the quarter, and when the horn sounded they were knocking on the door at the RHS five.
Then came one of the longest and strangest 23-seconds the sport of football has ever seen. That amount of clock time took at least 15 minutes to play due to a variety of flags thrown on both teams. RHS was even called for pass interference in the end zone, but instead of taking advantage, the Falcons were flagged themselves on the ensuing play. Finally on the second or third attempt at a fourth and goal play, the Gladiator D got the job done and sacked Strother out near the 20, leaving the score at 7-6.
That defensive stand fired up the Big Red big time and they still had 9:37 left to take the lead. The proceeded to march the distance in short order, with the biggest play being a 32-yard sweep by Miller, with an extra 15 tacked on for a late hit. (We told you they were flag happy tonight!)
The Gladiators pushed across the go-ahead score with just under six minutes left, but failed again on the two-point conversion, leaving the door open for Central to possibly still sneak out of town with a win.
They drove into RHS territory but on a very close 4th down play, the chains held and the Big Red took over at about the three minute mark. The goal at that point was probably to run the clock out and take the victory but someone forgot to tell Miller that and he swept left end from about 40 yards out, appeared to be out of bounds, but suddenly cut back against the grain and took it to the house for the insurance TD. Central did not threaten again in the final minutes.
With the win, the Gladiators are finished for the season at 8-1. Although the RHS varsity will host Page County next week, those two JV teams met earlier in the season, so the Big Red will turn in the uniforms over the weekend and wait until next year when they have their chance to play with the big boys. Congratulations to Coach Wassick and his staff on another outstanding season.
