On a night where everything should have gone Goochland’s way, it didn’t.
The Bulldogs, winners of five straight, were unable to overcome uncharacteristic turnovers as visiting Greensville stunned the top seed 22-19 in the 2A East second round on Friday night.
Goochland (8-4) had no answer for senior quarterback Shyheim Anderson, who accounted for 175 yards of offense in the Eagles’ win.
Greensville will face Buffalo Gap in the third round of the 2A East playoffs.
“We made too many mistakes at crucial times,” Goochland coach Joe Fowler said. “We fumbled three times in the red zone. We dropped some passes, we missed tackles. They deserved to win the game because they played better than we did. They’ve got some awful good football players over there and they beat us tonight. But we contributed to that by beating ourselves a little bit.”
Goochland trailed 16-12 at halftime after a pair of Anderson touchdowns on runs of 8 and 3 yards, respectively. The Eagles tacked on the 2-point conversion on both scores to gain the edge.
The Bulldogs kept themselves in the game with quick scores in the second quarter. Calvin Martin broke off a 68-yard touchdown run, and following a blocked punt, the home team scored again, as Daric Clarke found a huge hole and followed his blockers 30 yards for the score. Goochland couldn’t convert on either of its two-point attempts.
A Reid Chenault interception early in the fourth quarter resulted in a 98-yard drive by the Eagles, culminating with a six-yard touchdown run by Anderson.
On third-and-18 at the two-yard line, it appeared the Bulldogs would get a safety early in the drive, but the shifty Anderson evaded defenders and managed to get a pass off, connecting with Jordan Peebles for a 29-yard strike. From there, it was all Anderson as the visitors marched methodically down field. The 5-7, 199-pounder rushed for 85 yards on 24 carries and threw for another 90 yards in the win.
“[Anderson] was a warrior out there,” Fowler said. “He made a lot of plays for them and he kept them in the ball game. We thought the field’s wet conditions would hurt them worse than it hurt us and it turned out to be the opposite. We just didn’t make plays when we needed to make them and sometimes that’s the way it goes.”
Goochland got the ball back with 3:22 to play and made the most of it, riding the arm of Chenault.
The senior quarterback fired off four consecutive perfect passes, capped by a 19-yard TD strike to Clarke. Sullivan Young converted the point after attempt to cut the lead to 22-19 with 2:30 remaining.
However, Greensville was able to grind out the win as it converted on fourth-and-three with just under a minute left on an Anderson keeper.
“[Anderson is] one of the best athletes I’ve had in a long time,” Greensville coach Mario Walton said. “He wants the ball and he wants to make a play. So we give it to him and he does big things for us. I’m glad they didn’t drop their heads. [Goochland’s] a tough team over there. We just fought until the end.”
Martin paced the Bulldogs with 93 yards on 10 carries, while Wyatt Smith toted the ball seven times for 51 yards. Clarke added 38 rushing yards on four attempts and Marcus Burton rushed eight times for 26 yards. Chenault, who threw for over 1,300 yards this year, finished the night 7-of-17 passing for 115 yards.
While the game didn’t end with the outcome they were hoping for, Fowler knows this group has learned some valuable life lessons along the way.
“I hate for it to end like this, but they’re great kids and they’re going to do a lot more important things than play high school football.” Fowler said. “Like I told them, worse things are going to happen than losing a football game, and when the time comes, there’s no doubt in my mind they’ll be able to handle it.”
Goochland’s senior class, led by Chenault and KK Timberlake, will undoubtedly be missed.
“We have such a great senior class. Some of them have been with us for four years,” Fowler added. “We’re going to miss them so much. They were as good a leaders as they were kids, and they’re great kids.”
