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Blue Ridge cruises past Covenant in home debut

Photo: Brian Mellott
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As far as scripts go for opening up a new facility, Blue Ridge could not have written a better one. Playing for the first time at their new facility equipped with field turf — a dramatic change from the spotty grass field fenced in by an old wooden cattle style fence — the Barons saw two touchdowns scored on the first three plays from scrimmage. Both of those came from Malik Johnson, one on offense and one on defense in the first minute of the first quarter. Behind one big play after another, Blue Ridge christened its new field in perfect fashion, beating rival Covenant 47-0.

 

“It’s exciting, this (grand opening) has been a long time coming,” said Blue Ridge coach Tim Thomas. “We spent a couple of games on the road wanting to make sure the field was ready… Opening up at home against a local team, it added to the excitement. We’ve got a good thing going and just have to stay healthy.”

 

Johnson opened up the scoring on the second play from scrimmage when he hauled in a pass from Justin Armwood, reversed field and turned it into a 40-yard touchdown reception.

 

“I could tell from how they lined up they didn’t have the safety over the top,” Johnson said. “I knew I had one man to beat.”

 

Following his 2-point convert, the Barons were out in front 8-0 in just 49 seconds. On the next play from scrimmage, Johnson picked off an Eagles pass and returned it for 23 yards with Tae Watts getting the 2-point conversion to make it 16-0 just like that with just one minute played.

 

“They tried to run a fullback play and the tight end usually runs at me but he kind of stayed back to turn to the quarterback,” Johnson said. “I saw that and knew I just had to make the play.”

 

From there, the route was on. After the Blue Ridge defense forced a turnover on downs, Johnson took a short pass from Armwood 44 yards for the score to make it 22-0 with 3:49 to go in the first.

 

“Malik is our playmaker and you talk to any coach and they’ll tell you that you have to have your playmaker on the field,” Thomas said. “We just have to get the ball in his hands, it just makes sense.”

 

In the second, the Barons struck three more times. Armwood made it 28-0 early in the frame with his 22-yard scramble. Then the quarterback found Aaron Brown on a 31-yard bomb that Brown managed to haul in with one hand under heavy defense.

 

“(Armwood) had a great game and he’s a big part of this offense,” Thomas said. “Obviously he’s a run threat with the zone read and he reads it all himself and he’s got a good arm”

 

With 10 seconds to go until the break, Watts broke loose for a 22-yard touchdown run and just like that it was 41-0.

 

Blue Ridge came out of the break and went back to Johnson. The senior took off on a 29-yard run breaking through a bevy of would be tacklers just before hitting the goal line. With the defense keeping the Eagles out of the redzone in the second half, that and a running clock more than put a bow on the victory — the program’s first shutout in six years.

 

“That was one of our goals this year, we knew we had a pretty good offense (coming into the season),” Thomas said. “I was really pleased with our defense. They were flying around, they’ve got a little more speed. We changed up the scheme a little bit. We were on a heels a little bit too much last year and just wanted to attack more this year, come to the ball. It came together well.”

 

For Covenant, it was tough day sledding with only Rick Weaver finding success on the ground in the Eagles’ option offense. Covenant had a pair of possessions in Barons territory in the first half, but turned the ball over both times on downs. Weaver had 85 yards on the ground on 18 carries, but that was not enough to get Covenant into the redzone, much less play from behind with the option against an offense on the other side that was making hay with big plays.

 

Johnson finished with 119 yards receiving on three catches and added 41 yards on the ground. Armwood threw for 150 yards on 4 of 5 passing, finishing with three TD passes and a rushing strike. Watts had 15 carries for 86 yards.

 

Covenant (3-3) has a bye week coming up while Blue Ridge (2-1) heads to Blessed Sacrament next Saturday.

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