Handley holds on to beat Kettle Run
Handley's Dayvon Newman hauls in a pass at the 10-yard line after beating Kettle Run's Alden Williams deep. Newman took the ball in for a 36-yard touchdown in Handley's 28-21 homecoming win over Kettle Run on Saturday at James R. Wilkins Jr. Stadium.
- ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI/The Winchester Star
Handley's Dayvon Newman (21) starts to drive Kettle Run's Jacob Robinson into the turf for a one-yard gain on fourth-and-4 from the Judges 25 in the second quarter. Handley forced the Cougars to turn the ball over on downs three times inside the Judges' 35 in Saturday's 28-21 homecoming win.
- ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI/The Winchester Star
Noah Hendrickson runs toward the end zone on his 12-yard touchdown run in the second quarter of Saturday in the Handley's 28-21 homecoming win. Kettle Run's Hunter Lambert (98) is in pursuit.
- ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI/The Winchester Star
WINCHESTER — A week ago, the Handley football team outgained Sherando by 109 yards, but lost in overtime.
The Judges might not have been jumping for joy after being outgained by 77 yards on Saturday, but at least this time they left James R. Wilkins Jr. Stadium with the result they wanted.
Handley capitalized on Kettle Run's mistakes and made just about every critical play it needed to make to emerge with a 28-21 homecoming win in Class 4 Northwestern District action.
The Judges (7-1, 4-1 district) had two touchdown drives totaling 41 yards as a result of Cougar special teams miscues, got a couple of explosive TD plays from quarterback Malachi Imoh (a 72-yard run and a 36-yard pass) and stopped Kettle Run (0-8, 0-5) three times on downs inside the Judges' 35-yard line.
Handley did not clinch the win until Imoh (166 yards on 22 carries) gained 10 yards on third-and-9 from the 50 with two minutes left and three yards on third-and-3 from the Cougar 33 with about a minute left.
"We won ugly," said Judges coach Dan Jones, whose team was outgained 331-254 (the Cougars had 220 passing yards). "Their record doesn't indicate what type of team they are. They've had some injuries. They're a huge, well-coached team.
"We're fortunate to get out of this. Winning ugly, sometimes that's the way you've got to do it."
Handley star defensive end and tight end Stephen Daley was on the field wearing his helmet, jersey and uniform pants before the game during warmups before the team went into the locker room, but his jersey was the only part of his uniform he wore out to the field when the team reemerged before kickoff. Jones said the Judges simply wanted him to get a workout in and weren't planning on playing him.
Handley managed just nine first downs against Kettle Run and its large defensive front, but the Judges' ability to convert the third-and-9 late was particularly big.
The Cougars had gone from their 6-yard like to the Handley end zone on their previous possession as a result of Elijah Chumley completing passes of 44, 27 and 21 yards, so traveling 80 yards in about 1:40 with one timeout to spare wouldn't have been out of the realm of possibility. The Cougars went 65 yards for a TD in the last 1:40 of the first half to make it 28-14 Judges at halftime.
"We just needed to get a push up front to get a first down to keep the chains going," said Imoh, who followed his blockers around the right side. "The linemen up front made it happen."
Imoh gave credit to Kettle Run's defense for making Handley work for everything it got.
"They played really well up front," Imoh said. "They're really big. They make good tackles. It's just hard to move them off the ball. And they had the ball so much on offense that it was hard for us to get into a flow."
Just prior to those comments, Handley coach Dan Jones was talking to Imoh on a couch near the coaches' office, and he expressed to him that he shouldn't get frustrated by the Judges' offensive struggles on Saturday.
"You have to be patient," Jones said. "Sometimes it's going to be one yard, two yards, three yards, and then he's going to get his big one. Hopefully, when it's there, he gets it. He usually does. We don't live by the big play, but today it was a big help.
"And special teams picked us up. Kettle Run helped us with it, but we had to take advantage of short fields. We did when they gave it to us."
Kettle Run set Handley up on its doorstep for the game's first TD. A high snap on a punt attempt forced Kettle Run's Andrew Piercy to scramble back 30 yards behind the line of scrimmage and fall on the ball at the Cougar 7. Two plays later, Imoh scored from one yard out, and the first of Adam Pollak's four extra points made it 7-0 with 5:55 left in the first quarter.
Chumley (one rushing and passing TD each, 14 of 19 for 196 yards) came into the game on the next possession, the Cougars' second, and directed a 10-play, 65-yard TD drive to tie the score. Darian Lambert (12 carries, 77 yards) capped the drive with a six-yard run to make it 7-7 with 0:58 left in the first quarter. Kettle Run's line did a good job of creating holes at times for Lambert and its other runners — the Cougars lost 30 yards on the high punt snap but picked up 140 rushing yards on its other 40 carries.
Kettle Run coach Charlie Porterfield said Chumley and freshman Peyton Mehaffey (6 of 8 for 24 yards) have been rotating at quarterback. Mehaffey started and directed three drives to Chumley's two in the first half, but Porterfield decided to ride the hot hand of Chumley in the second half.
The Judges spent the second quarter making big and timely plays on offense, defense and special teams to build up a lead that was too much to overcome.
With 9:46 left in the first quarter, Tycuan McMillan broke up a fourth-and-6 pass from Mehaffey intended for Jacob Robinson (nine catches, 109 yards) to give the Judges the ball at their own 27.
Handley immediately took advantage, with Imoh picking up 32 yards around the right side on the first play. Three plays after that, Imoh (4 of 9 for 40 yards and an interception) connected with Dayvon Newman. He hauled in the pass near the 10-yard line after beating Kettle Run's Alden Wiliams deep down the right side for a 36-yard TD that made it 14-7 with 7:50 left in the second quarter.
"They had collapsed the pocket, and I saw he was open," Imoh said. "I didn't actually see the catch because I got hit on that play, but that was great."
The Judges kept the momentum going when the Cougars fumbled on the return of the ensuing kickoff. Miles Ashe recovered at the Kettle Run 34, and four plays later Noah Hendrickson (nine carries, 31 yards) took a pitch left from Imoh and scored with 6:18 left in the first half to make it 21-7.
"He ran hard when he ran and blocked great for us," said Jones of the 5-foot-8, 180-pound Hendrickson. "When you talk about a small running back lead blocking for a quarterback against those big guys, he did a tremendous job. He's kind of an unsung hero because he doesn't get the publicity, but he continues to work hard and do what we ask him to do."
Behind Mehaffey, Kettle Run embarked on a 10-play drive, but the drive was halted when Newman made a key play on defense. On fourth-and-4 from the Handley 29, Mehaffey hit Robinson on a quick throw to the right seam, but Newman stepped up and drove Robinson into the turf after a gain of just one yard.
"Our defense has bailed us out a lot this year," Jones said. "They just continue to play well."
Three plays later, Imoh found a running lane on the right side and once again showed off his all-state track speed for a 72-yard TD that made it 28-7 with 1:47 left in the first half.
"He's just a super, special kid," Porterfield said. "I thought we did a pretty good job of containing him for the most part by paying attention to where he was and being in the right spots, but when he gets out into space we don't have a lot of kids that can catch him."
Chumley scored with four-tenths of a second left in the first half on a two-yard run in which the refs ruled he stretched the ball over the goal line before he fumbled the ball to make it 28-14.
Neither side could get anything going for most of the second half.
The Judges forced a turnover on downs on fourth-and-5 from their own 34 on the first possession, and it looked like they might pitch a second-half shutout with less than four minutes left after Garrett Trimble couldn't hold onto a deep right sideline pass on fourth-and-10 at the Handley 21, with the ball rolling out of bounds.
Many on the Handley side thought it was an incompletion, but the officials felt he had established possession before losing the ball out of bounds and declared it a catch. Chumley connected with Jordan Tapscott on the next play for a 21-yard TD to make it 28-21 Handley with 3:03 left.
The Cougars had life, but Leland Walkling recovered the onside kick, and the Judges ran out the clock.
"I think we got better today," Porterfield said. "We took steps in the right direction. It hurts to lose the game but I'm really pleased with the effort of our kids. With where we are in the season, going down 28-7, it would have been easy to give in, but they fought and battled back. I'm proud of them."
Handley linebacker Quinton Newman said while it was good that the Judges were able to make stops that they needed to, Saturday's performance was not one the team wants to repeat.
"We weren't very proud about this game," Quinton Newman said. "Although we did win, we felt we could have produced more. I believe we just had an off day."
Handley won't be able to afford one of those on Friday night when it travels to unbeaten Liberty. The Eagles can clinch the district title with a win, while the Judges can take over first place with a win and give itself a chance to take the district in the regular-season finale against James Wood.
"We take every game like it's a championship game, but next week, we've got to bring our 'A' game," Quinton Newman said.
