It’s not that Holland Corbett was the most unlikely hero for Western Albemarle’s football team coming into Friday night.
It’s just that he was pretty close to the least likely.
The Warriors’ kicker had a monster impact on Western’s close shave with Spotswood, booming a trio of kickoffs for touchbacks while nailing the game-winning field goal from 27 yards out with 6:45 to play. After a couple of strong defensive stands near midfield, Western headed back to Crozet with a 17-14 victory over the Blazers.
“From last year, he’s definitely made improvement — he really stepped it up,” said wideout Nic Drapanas. “It’s a good thing to have a kicker (like that) because that’s a big part of the game. He’s just making plays.”
Corbett’s touchbacks also took away a huge part of the Blazers’ own arsenal, All-Region III return man Khalil Davis. For his part, Corbett was unconcerned with who was potentially going to field those kickoffs.
“I was just trying to kick the ball as hard as I could and do what the coaches told me,” Corbett said. “When it came down too it, I was just happy that I could deliver for our team.”
With Davis, a junior, unable to return Corbett’s booming kicks, the Blazers’ run-heavy offense had to set up on their own 20 and try and march 80 yards on several possessions. The Warriors’ defense proved up to preventing the Blazers from doing that for the most part, surrendering just two first half touchdowns and pitching a shutout after the break.
The defense made their two best stands near midfield in the closing minutes, stuffing the Blazers once with 2:51 left to play and then again with under a minute left. The last stop was an authoritative three and out that effectively ended the game.
Outside of Holland, Drapanas was the other big factor on a special teams unit that helped turn the tide for the Warriors. His 45-yard punt return in the third quarter ignited the Warriors’ sideline and tied the game at 14-14.
“A couple of the guys were just saying ‘cut back in the middle’ I can get a crack (back block),” Drapanas said. “There were a couple of lanes and I just picked one of them.”
The Blazers did a solid job on defense of keeping the Warriors’ high octane offense from kicking into gear, coming up with a couple of key redzone stops that kept Spotswood close. The first came on the Warriors’ largely efficient opening drive that ended on the 17 and the other came on the Warriors’ first possession of the third quarter when on fourth and goal from the nine-yardline, Western failed to convert.
“Our defensive coordinator did a great job of mixing coverages, which maybe gave us a second or two,” said Spotswood coach Chris Dodson. “I think we stayed disciplined for the most part and didn’t run past him and kept him in the pocket. At times he stepped up and looked for a place to run and he didn’t have a place to run.”
Spotswood held standout quarterback Kent Henry to just 136 yards through the air and another 76 on the ground, for 212 yards of total offense, well off his torrid 2012 average of 351.8 total yards per game. Henry was harassed all night by the Blazers’ front seven and completed just 12 of his 25 attempts. He found Steven Hearn most often, with Hearn hauling in seven catches for 63 yards and the game’s opening touchdown.
Matt Slater picked and bashed his way through the Western defense for 153 yards and a touchdown on 21 touches. The Spotswood senior was all over the field for the Blazers on defense as well. Davis had the Blazers other touchdown, a 53-yard catch and run that evened the game at 7-7.
Western Albemarle heads back over Afton Mountain next week too as the Warriors take on Waynesboro at 7 p.m. Friday on the road.
