After a shaky start, the Big Red turned it on tonight and easily handled the West Virginia powerhouse in their second scrimmage of the season, played in front of an almost-regular-season-sized crowd. To Greenbrier's credit, they brought a nice contingent too, considering the 80-90 mile trip they had to make.
For a while it looked as if that trip would be worthwhile as the first quarter was almost entirely Greenbrier. But once the Gladiators made some adjustments, things turned sour for the visitors and RHS easily won the evening.
The first half was played pretty much under game conditions with the exception of kicks not being challenged. Riverheads took possession first and although they ran about 5 minutes off the clock, GE stopped them just inside midfield. A punt then pinned the visitors back inside their own 5 yard line.
They then proceeded to drive the distance, mixing up their plays and formations nicely and seemed to have the Big Red completely confused on defense. The (never heard their team name called) caught a lucky break inside the Gladiator 30 when the QB momentarily mishandled the snap. With defenders closing in on him, he recovered just in time to find an open receiver, who hauled in a pass at the one. They scored on the next play for a quick 7-0 lead.
At that moment, a betting man might have assumed that RHS had met its match but as it turned out, that would be the one and only Greenbrier score of the night, as the rest of the scrimmage was all Riverheads. They first marched down the field to score the tie-breaker on a 7 yard run by Cayden Cook Cash.
The second quarter began with Riverheads in possession again after a punt at midfield. They drove that in for a score to take the lead for good. Moments later GE shot itself in the foot by going for it on 4th and 2 inside their own 30 and coming up short. That led to RHS' only score through the air, a 25 yard completion from Bennett Dunlap to Austin Roberts. The Big Red then tacked on its fourth touchdown to take a "halftime lead" of 28-7. Not only that but they were driving again when the clock ran out.
By this time, CCC and his running mate Luke Bryant were pretty much finished for the night and the Gladiators unveiled their depth the rest of the game with two more quarterbacks seeing action and running backs David Austin and Cole Fletcher each having nice games. If I am not mistaken, Austin scored twice, once in each half.
The third quarter was announced as being a 15 minute, running clock affair with each team using its second string. That too worked out in Riverheads' favor as Austin scored followed by the best individual effort play of the night. GE had the ball and threw a pass out into the left flat. In a play that you could see coming from a mile away, Elias Hagy timed it perfectly, stepped in front of the route, and took it untouched into the end zone.
That turned out to be the final score of the evening as the fourth quarter consisted of each team having 10 untimed downs, but neither scored. So all things considered, a very important night for the Big Red and its fans as they unveiled some depth they might not have known that they had.
In all fairness to GE, they subbed quite frequently as well so the easy RHS win does not necessarily mean that a four-quarter game of our best against your best would turn out the same. In fact, for something for local fans to put on their calendar, GE comes to Stuarts Draft for a regular season game this year. Don't quote me on this but I believe that is September 16th, and if so, that will be Riverheads' bye week, so the Gladiators can see GE again that night and scout the Cougars at the same time.
Meanwhile RHS opens the regular season at Waynesboro next Friday, where the Little Giants are reportedly sky high to see if they can continue the impressive surge with which they ended last season.
For a while it looked as if that trip would be worthwhile as the first quarter was almost entirely Greenbrier. But once the Gladiators made some adjustments, things turned sour for the visitors and RHS easily won the evening.
The first half was played pretty much under game conditions with the exception of kicks not being challenged. Riverheads took possession first and although they ran about 5 minutes off the clock, GE stopped them just inside midfield. A punt then pinned the visitors back inside their own 5 yard line.
They then proceeded to drive the distance, mixing up their plays and formations nicely and seemed to have the Big Red completely confused on defense. The (never heard their team name called) caught a lucky break inside the Gladiator 30 when the QB momentarily mishandled the snap. With defenders closing in on him, he recovered just in time to find an open receiver, who hauled in a pass at the one. They scored on the next play for a quick 7-0 lead.
At that moment, a betting man might have assumed that RHS had met its match but as it turned out, that would be the one and only Greenbrier score of the night, as the rest of the scrimmage was all Riverheads. They first marched down the field to score the tie-breaker on a 7 yard run by Cayden Cook Cash.
The second quarter began with Riverheads in possession again after a punt at midfield. They drove that in for a score to take the lead for good. Moments later GE shot itself in the foot by going for it on 4th and 2 inside their own 30 and coming up short. That led to RHS' only score through the air, a 25 yard completion from Bennett Dunlap to Austin Roberts. The Big Red then tacked on its fourth touchdown to take a "halftime lead" of 28-7. Not only that but they were driving again when the clock ran out.
By this time, CCC and his running mate Luke Bryant were pretty much finished for the night and the Gladiators unveiled their depth the rest of the game with two more quarterbacks seeing action and running backs David Austin and Cole Fletcher each having nice games. If I am not mistaken, Austin scored twice, once in each half.
The third quarter was announced as being a 15 minute, running clock affair with each team using its second string. That too worked out in Riverheads' favor as Austin scored followed by the best individual effort play of the night. GE had the ball and threw a pass out into the left flat. In a play that you could see coming from a mile away, Elias Hagy timed it perfectly, stepped in front of the route, and took it untouched into the end zone.
That turned out to be the final score of the evening as the fourth quarter consisted of each team having 10 untimed downs, but neither scored. So all things considered, a very important night for the Big Red and its fans as they unveiled some depth they might not have known that they had.
In all fairness to GE, they subbed quite frequently as well so the easy RHS win does not necessarily mean that a four-quarter game of our best against your best would turn out the same. In fact, for something for local fans to put on their calendar, GE comes to Stuarts Draft for a regular season game this year. Don't quote me on this but I believe that is September 16th, and if so, that will be Riverheads' bye week, so the Gladiators can see GE again that night and scout the Cougars at the same time.
Meanwhile RHS opens the regular season at Waynesboro next Friday, where the Little Giants are reportedly sky high to see if they can continue the impressive surge with which they ended last season.
