It's bad enough when a team has to battle one "storm" to win a game, but TWO of them descended upon Greenville tonight in a rare Thursday night kick-off on the RHS gridiron. Fortunately, neither one of them posed any major problem as the Gladiators ran their season record to 9-0 with a methodical 56-7 pasting of the Staunton Storm behind the four-touchdown effort of Super Soph Cayden Cook-Cash. As for the other storm, the one that impacted just about every game in the state, fortunately the bulk of the rain held off until the second half, and the steady shower that fell then did not seem to negatively impact play for either team.
While the Gladiators were polishing off Staunton, Stuarts Draft was taking care of business up at the other end of the county with a 48-13 thumping of Fort Defiance, which sets up the big battle for Shenandoah District supremacy next Friday night in Greenville. Needless to say, there will be plenty of advance discussion about that one and some folks are probably already looking at the long-range weather forecast, no doubt hoping for better conditions than we had tonight.
The first thing that some of the more shrewd Gladiator fans noticed tonight was the presence of "that man" lurking on the Staunton sideline, disguised in a white number 44 jersey, and if you read last night's JV game recap, you know EXACTLY who I mean. Fortunately for RHS, he only appeared a couple of times tonight on special teams plays, such as kickoffs, so we have hopefully seen the last of him until next fall.
It took Riverheads very little time to assume control of this one. Triple C, as he is now known, opened the scoring with the first of his two punt return TDs on the evening. Staunton had gone three and out after receiving the opening kickoff and Cayden looked as if he would be easily corralled when he fielded the punt around his own 45. But he sidestepped his three closest defenders, cut to the sideline in front of his own bench, and raced untouched for the score. The first of Cooper Robson's eight PATs gave the Gladiators a 7-0 lead.
As the game settled into its rhythm, it became a contrast of Staunton's passing attack vs. Riverheads' ground game, which was pretty much what was expected. Unfortunately for the visitors, the Big Red was on top of that running game, and by halftime, three other backs (Cole Burton, Aidan Miller, and Luke Bryant), all reached the end zone on the ground, as did Triple C on about a 13 yard sweep around left end.
But it was his third touchdown of the half that deserved the highlight reel treatment as he returned his second punt for a score. Again he fielded the ball in the vicinity of the 50 and headed for the home sideline. You could see the wall forming but it appeared that he was going to be forced out of bounds around the Staunton 30.
Instead he stopped on a dime, just long enough to fool the defense into relaxing ever so slightly, and then he put on another burst of speed to take it to the house. That score put RHS ahead 42-0 at the break, and at that point very little rain had fallen.
As the precip picked up in the third quarter, CCC scored once more on another broken field run that featured a wicked spin move, after which he was retired for the evening. Reserve running back David Austin would score the final RHS TD early in the fourth quarter.
Staunton however did not give up and in fact The Storm not only had the evening's longest touchdown but it was quite likely one of their longest of the season and maybe one of their all-time big plays. With the score standing at 49-0, RHS had driven down to around the 5 yard line as the third quarter clock ticked down, but Staunton stopped the subs short of the goal line. On the very first play from scrimmage after the big defensive stand, Walker Darby uncorked a pass to Andre Johnson, who had gotten behind the defense. He hauled in the pass in stride and galloped 90 plus yards to prevent the shutout. Austin's TD then capped off the scoring a few minutes later.
If you like statistics, tonight's score was exactly the same as last Friday's final over Fort Defiance. It was also the third straight 56-point outing for Riverheads and the fourth time this season that they hit that particular mark, not to mention their 62-point game at Lord Botetourt. Speaking of LB, one of my fellow trivia hounds noted tonight that the RHS starting defensive unit has pitched 7 first-half shutouts this season, with only Draft and Botetourt being able to score against RHS in the first half.
In other games tonight, Buffalo Gap rolled over Wilson 46-22 and in the game that proves I just can't win this year with my predictions, Waynesboro stunned Turner Ashby 27-14 on the road. Go figure!!!
While the Gladiators were polishing off Staunton, Stuarts Draft was taking care of business up at the other end of the county with a 48-13 thumping of Fort Defiance, which sets up the big battle for Shenandoah District supremacy next Friday night in Greenville. Needless to say, there will be plenty of advance discussion about that one and some folks are probably already looking at the long-range weather forecast, no doubt hoping for better conditions than we had tonight.
The first thing that some of the more shrewd Gladiator fans noticed tonight was the presence of "that man" lurking on the Staunton sideline, disguised in a white number 44 jersey, and if you read last night's JV game recap, you know EXACTLY who I mean. Fortunately for RHS, he only appeared a couple of times tonight on special teams plays, such as kickoffs, so we have hopefully seen the last of him until next fall.
It took Riverheads very little time to assume control of this one. Triple C, as he is now known, opened the scoring with the first of his two punt return TDs on the evening. Staunton had gone three and out after receiving the opening kickoff and Cayden looked as if he would be easily corralled when he fielded the punt around his own 45. But he sidestepped his three closest defenders, cut to the sideline in front of his own bench, and raced untouched for the score. The first of Cooper Robson's eight PATs gave the Gladiators a 7-0 lead.
As the game settled into its rhythm, it became a contrast of Staunton's passing attack vs. Riverheads' ground game, which was pretty much what was expected. Unfortunately for the visitors, the Big Red was on top of that running game, and by halftime, three other backs (Cole Burton, Aidan Miller, and Luke Bryant), all reached the end zone on the ground, as did Triple C on about a 13 yard sweep around left end.
But it was his third touchdown of the half that deserved the highlight reel treatment as he returned his second punt for a score. Again he fielded the ball in the vicinity of the 50 and headed for the home sideline. You could see the wall forming but it appeared that he was going to be forced out of bounds around the Staunton 30.
Instead he stopped on a dime, just long enough to fool the defense into relaxing ever so slightly, and then he put on another burst of speed to take it to the house. That score put RHS ahead 42-0 at the break, and at that point very little rain had fallen.
As the precip picked up in the third quarter, CCC scored once more on another broken field run that featured a wicked spin move, after which he was retired for the evening. Reserve running back David Austin would score the final RHS TD early in the fourth quarter.
Staunton however did not give up and in fact The Storm not only had the evening's longest touchdown but it was quite likely one of their longest of the season and maybe one of their all-time big plays. With the score standing at 49-0, RHS had driven down to around the 5 yard line as the third quarter clock ticked down, but Staunton stopped the subs short of the goal line. On the very first play from scrimmage after the big defensive stand, Walker Darby uncorked a pass to Andre Johnson, who had gotten behind the defense. He hauled in the pass in stride and galloped 90 plus yards to prevent the shutout. Austin's TD then capped off the scoring a few minutes later.
If you like statistics, tonight's score was exactly the same as last Friday's final over Fort Defiance. It was also the third straight 56-point outing for Riverheads and the fourth time this season that they hit that particular mark, not to mention their 62-point game at Lord Botetourt. Speaking of LB, one of my fellow trivia hounds noted tonight that the RHS starting defensive unit has pitched 7 first-half shutouts this season, with only Draft and Botetourt being able to score against RHS in the first half.
In other games tonight, Buffalo Gap rolled over Wilson 46-22 and in the game that proves I just can't win this year with my predictions, Waynesboro stunned Turner Ashby 27-14 on the road. Go figure!!!
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