Sometimes the weather favors a certain style. Playing through a game long deluge, after trouble with a few early snaps Fork Union was forced to abandon its playbook on offense. Goochland on the other hand, the conditions wound up playing to their advantage.
“We’re kind of built for this,” said Bulldogs coach Joe Fowler. “The weather played to our style. It showed a little bit early, the ball bounced our way.”
In game that saw Fork Union lose five fumbles, four of them getting scooped up by Sam Brooks, the Bulldogs took advantage of the short fields they were given to dispatch the Blue Devils 32-0.
“We were looking forward to this,” Brooks said. “I like playing in the rain. It might not be too nice on the sidelines watching but when you’re out there you get a good feeling, the water gets you going.”
Goochland took its opening drive of the game 88 yards on a 13-play drive that was capped by a 2-yard run from quarterback Devin McCray. The Bulldogs got the ball back after the next play from scrimmage to set up a 20-yard touchdown run from John King and make it 12-0 with 4:32 left in the first.
Both teams struggled to move the ball in the second but with a third fumble recovered, Goochland worked down into the redzone and got a 1-yard keeper from McCray to make it 18-0 going into the break.
“The turnovers killed us, we just couldn’t hold on the ball,” said Fork Union coach Mike Hooper. “You can’t score if you can’t hold onto the ball. Unfortunately we also had go away from our game plan. We don’t usually run things under center. But you also have to give Goochland credit, they’re a real good football team.”
McCray Goochland up 26-0 on the opening drive of the third quarter. The sophomore broke off a 36-yard run out of a pile at the line of scrimmage and then rushed in a 2-point convert.
“Devin gives us an athletic ability back there at quarterback that we haven’t had since Jordan Jefferson played for us (from 2011-2014),” Fowler said. “We realized early that we should keep the ball inside after we took a couple of chances going outside and it didn’t quite work for us.”
The inside man, Jasper Carter led all rushers with his 33 totes for 160 yards. McCray finished with nine touches for 52 yards. King had three carries for 27 yards while Perry Snead-Johnson finished with 15 yards on five attempts, including an 11-yard touchdown at the end of the third quarter that wrapped up the scoring.
“It was tough out there, we just had to stay mentally prepared, keeping our hands dry and focusing on the snap,” McCray said. “We came out very intense, focused the way coach Fowler wanted us to be.”
Fork Union, the season debut gives Hooper and his staff an idea of what they have, but obviously the Blue Devils will look to get back to their pistol-based offense and bounce back.
“I saw some good things, I think we found some depth at running back which should help (Iosefa Pua’aulli) stay fresher,” Hooper said. “There was a lot to be learned from this.”
Pua’aulli finished with 57 yards on 14 carries. RC Walbrook added 45 yards on four carries. Daniel Reynolds had a trio of runs for 20 yards. Seth Robinson led the Blue Devils with 12 tackles. Pua’aulli finished with 10 tackles, four of them solo.
Goochland travels to Central Lunenberg to open up James River District play while Fork Union host Bullis.
