By Allen Kha / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
STANARDSVILLE – If little mistakes can possibly cost teams football games, then big mistakes, by extension, make football games un-winnable. Friday evening in front of a raucous crowd, William Monroe — hosting their home opener on their renovated football field — conceded two early defensive touchdowns to Group AA opponent Broadway en route to a 47-21 defeat.
On their first possession, Dragons sophomore quarterback Jack Morris fumbled on a punt attempt after running outside the pocket to attempt a rugby-style kick. Morris was stripped of the ball from behind, which senior linebacker David Collier picked up and returned 28 yards for a defensive touchdown and early 14-0 Broadway lead.
“That wasn’t even a fake punt [attempt]. Jack was just telling me that he felt the pressure from behind and tried to run with it, but he should have kicked it. These things come with youth,” William Monroe coach Mark Sanford said.
“I was disappointed that we didn’t come out to play in the beginning of the game. I don’t think our team was mentally ready at the beginning of the game.”
The Dragons (2-1) responded to the Gobblers’ defensive touchdown with a dynamic drive of their own mid-way through the first quarter, capped off by a 46-yard touchdown scamper by senior playmaker Doug Sizemore.
The 14-7 margin was the closest William Monroe got to Broadway (3-0), who ran away with the game in the remainder of the first half. The Gobblers notched 26 unanswered points — including seven on another fumble recovery from a botched Dragons punt attempt — making the half-time score 40-7.
William Monroe brought in Alex Knight at quarterback in the second half, and the Dragons responded on both offense and defense.
Knight was efficient passing the ball, leading his team on two touchdown drives. Knight threw a touchdown pass to junior wide receiver Dakwan Morris early in the third quarter, while Sizemore notched another rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter on an 11-yard run.
“It’s like we’re back on starting ground [with our quarterback position battle]. Not the best position to be in,” Sanford said.
The Dragons’ defense, meanwhile, held Broadway scoreless for the majority of the second half by playing a physical brand of football.
“One huge positive from this game is that we never gave up on this game and played hard all game,” Sanford said. “We’re going to play some tough teams in our conference schedule — Clarke [County], Madison, Strasburg. We can’t look at our drop to single-A like we’re going to cakewalk through it. We’ll need the effort, like we’re playing in AAA than the other way around.”
Broadway was able to notch a final touchdown with 11 seconds remaining in the game to expand its lead to 47-21, which ultimately was the final score.
Sanford, who also saw the Gobblers score with two seconds remaining in the first half, took no offense: “We can’t complain much about them [not taking a knee]. They ran the ball down the middle on that last play — it’s the simplest football play out there, and we have to stop that.”
“Broadway’s a well-coached and well-disciplined team. We just faced a better team tonight.”
The Dragons play hit the road for a final Group AA test against East Rockingham, a squad that beat Madison just a couple of weeks ago, before jumping into Bull Run play with Strasburg September 30.
