Great players find a way to make an impact when they’re hurt, and Justin Armwood was a factor for Blue Ridge in a pair of losses to Flint Hill and North Cross, just not where he should have been. But with a finger injury on the mend, Armwood got back to what made him so good for the Barons in 2015 — playing quarterback, and then some. The senior had about as good as a half of football as Blue Ridge could have asked for as he rushed for a touchdown, threw for two more and returned a fumble recovery to the endzone to pace the Barons in a 55-14 road win at Covenant on just four days of rest.
“I call this our awakening game,” said Blue Ridge coach Tim Thomas. “We cleaned up the penalties. We cleaned up the turnovers.”
The Barons were live out of the gate. They got the ball to start the game and wasted little time getting on the board as a 43-yard run from Armwood set up a 2-yard touchdown rush from Jamison Harrison to kick off what was a 28-point first quarter.
“I had the jitters and was just ready to get this game out of the way,” Armwood said. “You have to give a lot of credit to offensive line today. They showed up. When everybody works together, plays as a team and we limit the turnovers and penalties, this is what can happen.”
On the next Blue Ridge drive, the Barons marched down field and Armwood was able to scramble before finding Xavier Kane for a 10-yard touchdown pass to make it 14-0 midway through the first. A little over a minute later, Armwood broke free for a 21-yard touchdown run as he just got in over the right side pylon. Then with just a few seconds left in the first, Armwood reached back and uncorked a 76-yard bomb for a touchdown to Cameron Carr.
“He had a thing with his thumb and while that’s such a small part of your body, it’s a critical part for a quarterback and he had to nurse it for a while,” Thomas said. “We double checked it — he had a good week in practice, seemed to be back. He gives us a different dimension back there.”
With 8:44 left in the second quarter, Armwood picked up a Covenant fumble and returned it 35 yards to the endzone and the game was in hand at 35-0. Kane wrapped up the scoring in the first half when he came up with a 20-yard scoring rush with 6:17 until the break.
From there, Blue Ridge was able to relax and shuffle things around. On their first play from scrimmage to start the second half, the Barons got a 67-yard touchdown sprint from Elijah Gordon, his only carry of the game.
The Eagles, who had to play the bulk of the game with quarterback Nic Sanker sidelined with an ankle injury, saw its big running back in sophomore Rick Weaver get rolling for the first time this year. After missing the previous four games due to offseason surgery, Weaver broke up the shutout with a 2-yard run with 1:05 left in the third quarter.
“There’s nothing to lose at that point so I think the kids just settled down and we worked on execution,” said Covenant coach Dave Hart. “We did some good things. We had some good plays and had some bad plays. That’s the way football goes, the way life goes. Some days things don’t quite go all your way.”
Not to be outdone, the Barons responded with Jamison Harrison taking the ensuing kickback 85 yards to the endzone to keep the game out of reach at 55-7 heading to the fourth quarter.
In the fourth, things went by quickly, but Weaver was able to break free for a 30-yard rushing touchdown to put up 100 rushing yards on the day with two scores.
“Having Rick back is huge for us,” Hart said. “We’ll get into practice this week, regroup and see what we can do.”
For Blue Ridge, Armwood was 5-for-7 passing with 121 yards and two touchdowns to go with his 5-carry 73-yard day on the ground with a rushing TD and his defensive score. Harrison had six tackles and two for an a pass defended to go with his kickoff return for a touchdown. Jack McLiney led the Barons with seven tackles. Tariq Gough threw in a sack and four tackles.
Blue Ridge (2-2) hosts Nansemond-Suffolk on October 8 at 2 p.m. while Covenant (2-3) will play at home against Fishburne on October 7 at 4 p.m.
