It was a nice little wrinkle, and in all likelihood, a sign of things to come down the road for Buckingham County. The Knights jumped out on Amelia County early and did so in the air. But as they did in week one against Appomattox on the road, and really, all of last year, the Knights showed that they have no qualms about keeping things on the ground as the offensive line simply owned the second half en route to another big road win, 36-17 over Amelia County.
“They loaded up the box on us and we threw the ball pretty well in the first half,” said Buckingham coach Craig Gill. “We made some adjustments at halftime. From there we just wanted to keep the ball away from them because we know they can score.”
Buckingham put 11 points on the board quickly in the first quarter with quarterback Leon Ragland hitting Matrice Foster over the top of the defense for a 45-yard touchdown. The Knights then added a 30-yard field goal and seemed in control.
But a pair of turnovers slowed things down for Buckingham, and Amelia was able to put up a 22-yard field goal off one of those turnovers to make it 11-3. Ragland responded for the Knights as he and Tariq Gough ran the ball deep into Raiders territory only to cap it with a 17-yard TD pass to Foster to go back up 17-3.
“On the first touchdown, the safety just bit and I was able to find Matrice,” Ragland said. “I was looking his way the whole time. (The second touchdown) was a rollout and the corner went inside, Matrice went outside and all I had to do was throw to the corner of the endzone.”
Amelia regrouped out of the gate at halftime, going on a 7-minute drive capped by a 19-yard run by Richard Perry. But getting to 17-10 would be the high point for the Raiders as the Knights, with Foster out because of injury, went back to its roots and simply ran downfield five and six yards at a time, never punting and piling up the points while melting away the clock.
“Tariq and myself, with this offensive line, there’s no reason we shouldn’t score all the time,” Ragland said.
To answer the Raiders opening drive, Ragland and Gough went to work behind its offensive line that was bigger and or more physical that Amelia could handle. Ragland made it 23-10 with 4:27 to play in the third on a 4-yard rush. Gough punched in a 4-yarder of his own on a similar drive with 6:57 in the fourth to pump his team’s lead up to 30-10.
“I’m proud of the way the boys kept their composure,” Gill said. “There was a bit there where Amelia made it close. But they kept cool and gave us the breathing room.”
Amelia capitalized on a 71-yard bomb to set up Perry’s second rushing touchdown from four yards out just 30 seconds later. But there was no response defensively. Three minutes later Buckingham went up 36-17, this time with Gough scoring on the ground from 14 yards out.
Buckingham (2-0) plays its home opener against Bluestone on Friday at 7 p.m.
