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Bulldogs redzone defense fuels win over Louisa

It seemed as though Louisa County had the ball the entire game. It also seemed as though Goochland played with their backs against the goal for the entire game. But though the Lions outgained the Bulldogs 2-to-1 in the yardage department and found itself with first and goal at some point in nearly every quarter, punching it in for points was a whole other matter for Louisa as the Bulldogs successfully defended their turf, 28-7.

“A lot of things went our way tonight and I’m the first to admit that,” said Goochland coach Joe Fowler. “A couple of breaks here and there and it could have been a completely different ballgame.”

Pure and simple, the game boiled down to Louisa’s redzone offense versus Goochlands redzone defense, and Lions coach Mark Fischer made no bones about it, the Bulldogs made all the plays they needed to, posting two critical goal line stands.

“They were beating us upfront and it was just that simple,” Fischer said. “They took the line of scrimmage and created a new one and we didn’t. They won the battle.”

In the first quarter Louisa marched down the field and converted a pair of fourth downs to work their way inside the Goochland 10-yard line, but a after a pair of false starts, the Lions couldn’t move the ball into the endzone, though they did reach the one.

“The offense kept us in (this game), but it was a defensive game and the defense won it for us tonight,” Fowler said. “I can’t say enough about how well they played.”

A 0-0 tie after the first 12 minutes, the Bulldogs went on to score 14 points in just 96 seconds after they followed a 14-yard Dustin Plummer touchdown run with an interception on defense from Willie Ezell that the Goochland linebacker took 19 yards for the score.

“It was a big rivalry game,” Ezell said. “We came in hyped and intense after a good week of practice and we were ready to go get them.”

Just before the half, Goochland put together it’s second goal line stand, this one with time expiring to preserve their 14-point lead.

After Plummer put another touchdown on the board for the Bulldogs in the third quarter, Louisa was finally able to break the shutout in the fourth with eight minutes and change to play when Kire’ Worley ran in a 3-yard score. However, the Lions offense would not be able to put together another meaningful drive as a near-perfect intentional downing pinned the team back at their own goal. Goochland took over in their own redzone with two minutes to play and Desmond Athey put the game out of reach from good on a 3-yard stretch run.

Glen Cosby led the Louisa offense with 87 yards rushing on 15 attempts.

For Goochland, Plummer finished with 10 carries for 64 yards on the ground and two touchdowns. Defensively, B.J. Clark and J.D. Epps finished with 11 and 10 tackles respectively.

Louisa (5-3, 3-2 Jefferson) will host Monticello on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

Goochland (7-1, 4-1) will travel to William Monroe on Friday, also at 7:30 p.m.

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