I am late joining the party but here are my thoughts on the day's events.
First of all, be sure to read the details about the 1-A championship. Talk about a weird way to win a 7-6 game!!!
But now about ours. The first thing I have to do is take back all the promises I made you guys all week about the weather. Not sure where today's rain came from but it certainly was not in any forecast I ever heard. However I really don't think it impacted the game.
My next gripe is about this GoFan ticket business. I don't have a problem with it being an OPTION, but today from what I saw it was a mess. It takes too much time and a lot of fans as well as the gate attendants themselves have problems with it. A much better option would be to have folks order tickets online and print them out in advance like you do for concerts. Then a very simple scan at the gate and poof you are done. But today, the lines got too long and I am quite certain there were people that missed the first score or two. Of course since when is good old cash considered a bad thing?
OK on to the game.........and by the way I am not going to get into all that enrollment business and who should be in what class. I will leave that to the rest of you.
Clearly the difference today was that Landon Clark came as advertised. And what a great name for football by the way! So I would be curious to hear from some Radford folks as to whether this was his best game of the year or was it just a case of business as usual? I know we compared this Radford team to the Eastern Montgomery team of 2010, but I sure don't remember that quarterback and that offense being anywhere near as dynamic as Radford was today.
Clark was as good a runner as he was a passer. I can specifically recall three occasions in which Riverheads had them in a third and long situation, but he broke loose and ran for the first down. One of the stories I have read already said that Radford was 11 for 11 today on third down conversions and that is an amazing statistic at any level.
His 50 yard strike just prior to halftime was a college or even pro level pass and was clearly the most important Bobcat TD of the day. If the score had only been 19-14 at the break, Riverheads would have had a better chance. Which brings me to my observations on the Gladiators' performance today.
Obviously they had no answer for Clark. But I sure don't think the Big Red was chopped liver out there today either.
CCC's rushing total was just a shade under 200 yards. Not too shabby. But as I see it, Riverheads spent the entire afternoon looking for a turnover or defensive stop that might have changed the complexion of the game and it just didn't come. When they came out of the locker room and drove straight down the field to cut the lead to 25-21, that was their best shot to get fired up on defense and make something happen to turn the tide in their favor. But Radford was just too efficient to let that happen. And speaking of efficient, I am sure you guys noticed that nobody punted today. So every possession either ended in a score, a turnover (two each by my count) or a failure to convert on fourth down.
Those two stops on fourth and one, one in each half I believe, were drive-killers for Riverheads as each one occurred well into Radford territory. So we will never know what might have happened if they had converted those fourth downs and scored on those possessions.
But if you had to hone in on the one play or one sequence that really sealed the deal today, it had to be the fumble at midfield, followed immediately by the aforementioned 50 yard bomb. The score was 19-14 at the time, and Riverheads still had all three timeouts to work with. Their offense being what it is, it might have been difficult for them to score and take the lead, but within about 15 seconds time, the game changed drastically with that fumble and Radford's gutsy call to go for the home run ball.
I see we haven't had a whole lot said about the officiating. If I had to mention one play that looked questionable and directly impacted the game, it would be the late hit called against Riverheads in the second quarter. I think they were ahead 14-13 at the time, so that call gave Radford the chance to continue that drive and take the lead for good.
Now it may very well have been a great call. I was too far away to have a clear view, but the frustrating thing about it was that the official right on top of it did NOT call it, but instead we got a delayed flag from a guy who came running up the sideline to call it. I am sure Gladiator fans recall a home game this year in which out of position officials made more calls than the ones who should have been making them.
Anyway, the best team clearly won, but Riverheads gave it the old high school try and with a break or two here and there, they still might not have won, but it could have been a lot more interesting.
As for the future, again I am not touching all that enrollment/classification business, but with each team losing its marquee player, it will be interesting to see if either or both are back in Salem next year.
