It’s unfortunate that Blue Ridge and Covenant’s Thursday afternoon clash will be remembered more for eye black and a blue towel than the tremendous game the two squads played within a penalty-filled circus that led to both coaches getting ejected despite not yelling or screaming at officials.
After the dust settled from all that, Blue Ridge pulled out a 20-13 victory on the strength of a 56-yard catch and run from Leon Strauss with under two minutes to play that held up after Mujahid Fricke’s game-sealing interception.
Blue Ridge needed the big play after Covenant marched downfield and converted on a 11-play drive, converting a pair of fourth downs to keep the ball moving forward.
“Against their defense and what they do I felt like we could grind out yardage against them,” said Covenant assistant coach Travis Knight. “That’s what we were able to do on that drive.”
Covenant couldn’t take the lead on the extra point as the Barons came up with a big block to preserve the tie.
That’s when Blue Ridge struck, after a short kickoff gave them field position near midfield, on a play that the Barons ran with a lot of success against North Cross last week. This time, instead of quarterback Tristan Allen hitting P.J. White down the sideline though, he found Leon Straus on a crossing pattern across the middle. The Barons knew Covenant was playing off Straus and shading him to the outside in preparation for a fade or a streak, so Straus broke his crossing pattern off much earlier than usual after discussing it on the sideline. He caught the pass just beyond the Covenant linebackers and out-ran the Eagles’ defenders down the Blue Ridge sideline.
“I told Tristan ‘You’ve got two of the best athletes in state, they’re on the same side of the field. Look at them both and hit the guy gets open first,” said Blue Ridge assistant Peter Atkinson. “We knew they were covering (Straus) that way the whole game and we slipped Leon underneath that safety and it worked out. We finally ran it like we drew it up.”
After an exchange problem on an attempted reverse by Covenant put the Eagles in a hole deep in their own end zone, Mujahid Fricke made a leaping interception to cap the game with 55 seconds to play.
“We knew (the ejection) was coming,” Straus said. “Like our coach said we just had to keep our composure and just keep playing defense — keep playing our game.”
Both teams earned unique unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in the first half, with Covenant getting tagged with an improper team towel, while Blue Ridge earned a call for excessive eye black on Fricke while he was getting medical attention.
Later in the first half, Covenant was called for a sideline violation, triggering an automatic ejection for head coach Dave Rocco because of the earlier call.
“That’s always tough,” Knight said. “But when we break our huddles, we break on ‘family’ and when he kicked out of the game we had to come together and do what was expected of us.”
Blue Ridge coach Orlando Patterson was booted early in the fourth quarter after the referee on his sideline clipped him while following a play with the first half eye black violation serving as the first of two penalties that trigger the automatic ejection.
Covenant’s Brady Doyle went 8 for 17 at quarterback for 110 yards and two touchdowns. The first touchdown came on a toss to John Meade, the second was to Henderson to tie it up late. Henderson had 11 tackles defensively to go with the second half touchdown.
Jaime Gaston finished with 24 carries for 78 yards. Meade had three catches for 61 yards and the touchdown, but his biggest impact came defensively with five tackles, a sack and a blocked extra point in the first half. Austin Llera had an interception for the Eagles.
P.J. White had a monster game for Blue Ridge with a 65-yard touchdown run on an end around in the first half that put Blue Ridge up 7-0 and an interception that set up Straus’ first touchdown, a 13-yard touchdown from Jimmy Connor on a jump ball in the end zone.
Shawn Steen had 78 yards on 12 carries for the Barons to lead the rushing attack.
The win over Covenant kicks off a brutal stretch for the Barons who face St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes next Saturday before taking on Christchurch, Virginia Episcopal and Liberty Christian. Three of those schools are ranked No. 1 in their respective divisions.
With the close battle with the Barons (ranked No. 2 in Division II), the Eagles took a step toward proving they are capable of competing for a title in Division III. Covenant takes on Norfolk Academy next Thursday.
