GREAT game and GREAT job Cougars. Stuarts Draft should now have home field throughout playoffs. So proud of the team
Stuarts Draft 16 Riverheads 13 in OT
- Thread starter Gunz41
- Start date
Gosh guys! Considering the late start I usually get on here, I figured you guys would have already dissected this one up one side and down the other. I am not really sure I can do it justice but I will try.
First of all, an awesome crowd. Both sets of bleachers filled and people rimming the fence 8-10 deep. The announcer even asked people to be considerate so the people behind them could see, as if that was gonna happen.
Anyway, to give you the punch line first, this was a game of MANY momentum swings and each team had its chances. Each fumbled twice, but only one of them led to a score. Each team had at least one big offensive play, obviously including the game winner for Draft, and for the most part it appeared to be a clean game, as there was no obvious dirty play. How many high school games of this magnitude would you expect to see without a single major penalty called? But we saw it tonight......no holding, no face masks, no personal fouls, no unsportsmanlike conduct. So either it was THAT respectable a game or the refs just let them play, take your pick.
As I said, there were many plot twists, but if I had to point to one factor that impacted the game quite a bit, it would be the Stuarts Draft kicking game. Twice they pinned RHS at the one-yard line on punts. To their credit, the Gladiators wiggled out of it each time, and in fact once even drove the length of the field to score a field goal, but still the field position battle definitely was won by the home team tonight.
You could even argue that the very first kick of the game (the opening kick-off) set the tone as McGann (right name?) put it deep and RHS' Brett Hostetler was dropped around the 17. That fired up the Cougar defense from the get-go and the Big Red didn't gain more than 4-5 yards on its first possession. To make matters worse, Ridge
Stokes shanked the punt and the Draft was immediately in business from the Riverheads 35. It only took 3 or 4 plays before Xzavier (sp.?) Gunn zipped around left end from about 24 yards out to put the Cougars up 7-0 less than four minutes into the game.
Following that score, RHS again started deep in its own end, and again went nowhere. But Stokes's atoned for his first punt with a much better one and gradually the Gladiators were able to put Draft back on its own side of the field. The quarter ended at 7-0 but to that point, it was all Cougars and things were not looking that good for a Big Red turnaround.
Especially not when the first of those well-placed punts pinned the visitors at their own one. But to their credit, the Gladiators kept their composure and worked away from the shadow of the goal line. They finally got the big play they needed when Hostetler rambled 55 yards into Cougar territory. But the defense stiffened in the red zone and forced a 32-yard field goal from Rinaldo Martina.
Still in the second quarter, the Gladiators caught their second break when they covered a Draft fumble around midfield. It was a very odd fumble recovery in that neither side reacted to it with any kind of emotion and for a few seconds, fans in the stands did not even realize there had been one.
Riverheads took full advantage and drove in for what would turn out to be its only TD of the night, but at the time it seemed huge as it swung the momentum over to the visitor's side as the teams trotted off to the locker room with RHS in front 10-7. Harrison Schaefer scored it on a 15-20 yard sweep right.
Early in the third quarter, SD gave Riverheads not one but two golden opportunities. The first came on the second-half kickoff. The receiver booted it a good 10 yards away from himself and frantically chased after it, but sadly for RHS, no one made it down field fast enough to get to it before he did.
Moments later the Cougars completed their longest pass of the night, but Schaefer stripped the receiver as he was trying to gain extra yardage. At that juncture, with RHS still clinging to the lead and having just stopped the Draft on its first possession of the half, you might have thought "Advantage Riverheads" but from that point on, both defenses ruled the game.
Late in the third, the Cougars got close enough to tie the game with a 32-yarder of their own, but that was the last of the regulation points and the crowd settled in for overtime. It had probably been so long for either team that many fans may have had no idea of the format.
But there was a coin flip and the Cougars won it, choosing to go on defense as anyone would in that situation. RHS was stopped cold on two rushing plays and badly overthrew a 3rd down pass, leaving the field goal as the only option. Martina delivered to make it 13-10.
On the Draft possession, they gained five yards on a pair of Izzy Johnson runs before Garrett Campbell found Dylan Lehmann (forgive me if I have had any of the Draft names wrong) wide open in the left corner for the game winner.
So a classic game and as someone has already said, one of those that you will talk about for weeks if you were there. Both teams of course advance to the playoffs in their respective divisions. If I understand correctly, the win vaults the Cougars ahead of Goochland for the number one spot in 2-A East, whereas the Gladiators will now be number two in 1-A East behind Sussex Central.
The Draft will host a game next week since 2-A East is a 16-team bracket, but Riverheads gets a week off to re-group since 1-A East is only a 12-team affair, with the top four seeds getting first-round byes. If the unofficial brackets that are already out turn out to be accurate, there appear to be two quality teams (Altavista and Lunenburg), who are in the Sussex bracket and could pull off the upset that might elevate the Big Red back to the position of highest seed. However, there will be no Big Red chicken-counting because they could be headed for their first-ever date with the legendary Essex Trojans. All of that is unofficial at this point so stay tuned to your local stations!
On an unrelated matter but one still worth discussing, I found out tonight that the Lady Gladiators were "rewarded" (if you can call it that) for sweeping Altavista in three sets last night by being seeded number 5 in an eight-team regional bracket. That could hypothetically mean that a team that just won its conference championship on the road is seeded two positions behind the team it just beat, and could conceivably have to travel as many as three more times this upcoming week. I have all the respect in the world for our ADs and recognize the toughness of their jobs, but something is very wrong with that particular picture.
First of all, an awesome crowd. Both sets of bleachers filled and people rimming the fence 8-10 deep. The announcer even asked people to be considerate so the people behind them could see, as if that was gonna happen.
Anyway, to give you the punch line first, this was a game of MANY momentum swings and each team had its chances. Each fumbled twice, but only one of them led to a score. Each team had at least one big offensive play, obviously including the game winner for Draft, and for the most part it appeared to be a clean game, as there was no obvious dirty play. How many high school games of this magnitude would you expect to see without a single major penalty called? But we saw it tonight......no holding, no face masks, no personal fouls, no unsportsmanlike conduct. So either it was THAT respectable a game or the refs just let them play, take your pick.
As I said, there were many plot twists, but if I had to point to one factor that impacted the game quite a bit, it would be the Stuarts Draft kicking game. Twice they pinned RHS at the one-yard line on punts. To their credit, the Gladiators wiggled out of it each time, and in fact once even drove the length of the field to score a field goal, but still the field position battle definitely was won by the home team tonight.
You could even argue that the very first kick of the game (the opening kick-off) set the tone as McGann (right name?) put it deep and RHS' Brett Hostetler was dropped around the 17. That fired up the Cougar defense from the get-go and the Big Red didn't gain more than 4-5 yards on its first possession. To make matters worse, Ridge
Stokes shanked the punt and the Draft was immediately in business from the Riverheads 35. It only took 3 or 4 plays before Xzavier (sp.?) Gunn zipped around left end from about 24 yards out to put the Cougars up 7-0 less than four minutes into the game.
Following that score, RHS again started deep in its own end, and again went nowhere. But Stokes's atoned for his first punt with a much better one and gradually the Gladiators were able to put Draft back on its own side of the field. The quarter ended at 7-0 but to that point, it was all Cougars and things were not looking that good for a Big Red turnaround.
Especially not when the first of those well-placed punts pinned the visitors at their own one. But to their credit, the Gladiators kept their composure and worked away from the shadow of the goal line. They finally got the big play they needed when Hostetler rambled 55 yards into Cougar territory. But the defense stiffened in the red zone and forced a 32-yard field goal from Rinaldo Martina.
Still in the second quarter, the Gladiators caught their second break when they covered a Draft fumble around midfield. It was a very odd fumble recovery in that neither side reacted to it with any kind of emotion and for a few seconds, fans in the stands did not even realize there had been one.
Riverheads took full advantage and drove in for what would turn out to be its only TD of the night, but at the time it seemed huge as it swung the momentum over to the visitor's side as the teams trotted off to the locker room with RHS in front 10-7. Harrison Schaefer scored it on a 15-20 yard sweep right.
Early in the third quarter, SD gave Riverheads not one but two golden opportunities. The first came on the second-half kickoff. The receiver booted it a good 10 yards away from himself and frantically chased after it, but sadly for RHS, no one made it down field fast enough to get to it before he did.
Moments later the Cougars completed their longest pass of the night, but Schaefer stripped the receiver as he was trying to gain extra yardage. At that juncture, with RHS still clinging to the lead and having just stopped the Draft on its first possession of the half, you might have thought "Advantage Riverheads" but from that point on, both defenses ruled the game.
Late in the third, the Cougars got close enough to tie the game with a 32-yarder of their own, but that was the last of the regulation points and the crowd settled in for overtime. It had probably been so long for either team that many fans may have had no idea of the format.
But there was a coin flip and the Cougars won it, choosing to go on defense as anyone would in that situation. RHS was stopped cold on two rushing plays and badly overthrew a 3rd down pass, leaving the field goal as the only option. Martina delivered to make it 13-10.
On the Draft possession, they gained five yards on a pair of Izzy Johnson runs before Garrett Campbell found Dylan Lehmann (forgive me if I have had any of the Draft names wrong) wide open in the left corner for the game winner.
So a classic game and as someone has already said, one of those that you will talk about for weeks if you were there. Both teams of course advance to the playoffs in their respective divisions. If I understand correctly, the win vaults the Cougars ahead of Goochland for the number one spot in 2-A East, whereas the Gladiators will now be number two in 1-A East behind Sussex Central.
The Draft will host a game next week since 2-A East is a 16-team bracket, but Riverheads gets a week off to re-group since 1-A East is only a 12-team affair, with the top four seeds getting first-round byes. If the unofficial brackets that are already out turn out to be accurate, there appear to be two quality teams (Altavista and Lunenburg), who are in the Sussex bracket and could pull off the upset that might elevate the Big Red back to the position of highest seed. However, there will be no Big Red chicken-counting because they could be headed for their first-ever date with the legendary Essex Trojans. All of that is unofficial at this point so stay tuned to your local stations!
On an unrelated matter but one still worth discussing, I found out tonight that the Lady Gladiators were "rewarded" (if you can call it that) for sweeping Altavista in three sets last night by being seeded number 5 in an eight-team regional bracket. That could hypothetically mean that a team that just won its conference championship on the road is seeded two positions behind the team it just beat, and could conceivably have to travel as many as three more times this upcoming week. I have all the respect in the world for our ADs and recognize the toughness of their jobs, but something is very wrong with that particular picture.
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Great report as usual. This did not go the way I expected it to go. I was following on Twitter and kept waiting for Riverheads to open up a lead.
Congrats Gunz to you and your Cougars. I knew going into this season you guys would be really good. Good luck in the playoffs. I said before the season started, Draft had the team to get it done and the entire state would see this season. I do not see anyone being able to handle Appo, but defense does give a team a chance in any game and your defense has the horses to keep it close. Sounded like a great game.
Crow ! Crow ! Crow ! Time to eat some ! Hats off to the Cougars . Great game . Draft is much better now than earlier in the season . The big trophy is what is all about and now both these teams will have to show just how good they are ! Good luck to both teams . Go Big Red !!!!!!!!!!
I'll have to give XCROSS credit, he came on for his crow. I'm just glad it was a GREAT packed game with no injuries. Good luck the rest of season, maybe we can cheer each other on in Salem. I was there last year. That game last night ranks top 3-5 games I have ever seen
great game last night, great atmosphere, both teams left it all on the field and draft came away with a very hard fought victory, both teams should make a deep run in the playoffs, riverheads has a week off to get a couple players healthy, and draft will carry lots of momentum at home for round 1, good luck to both teams and GO BIG RED
People were talking about how the ones that had passes were just waved in, without having to sign in as they normally do. So that would have made it hard to estimate. It was a big crowd for sure, but still I would be surprised if it was more than 4,000-5,000. If we ever had a 10,000 person game around here, we would not have a place to put them!
Our announcer joked before the game that my job was to count every person in stadium. I of course then had to give him an answer haha. I'm just glad to be at home throughout because don't have to travel and I already have my seat
Hats off to the Cougars on the win , imo I would have to agree with longtimer that their punting was the biggest differance in the game I saw . Gotta give dalton McCann some love !!! That boy saw spot on on his punts pinning us inside the 5 several times .
