Relentless rain. Two extremely loud student sections including one (Albemarle) with their own music. Two cross-county rivals.
Sometimes, Friday night isn’t about execution or statistics. It’s just about surviving.
Western Albemarle proved to be the slightly better survivor Friday night, riding a productive run game and some strong red zone defense to a 23-17 victory over archrival Albemarle Friday.
“(Both teams) played hard, just a hard-fought, great high school football game,” said Western coach Ed Redmond. “We’ve got a lot of respect for their program and we’re proud of our kids because they hung in there. We’re just really pleased with their effort and their ability to finish.”
It certainly didn’t come easy as the Warriors’ defense had to withstand a furious comeback attempt from the Patriots that started with Cameron Green’s circus catch for 32 yards where the senior hauled it in as he fell to the ground after it was tipped by a Western defender. Green’s catch came on third and long and set the Patriots up on the Western nine yardline. A play later, Rooney Turay was the end zone, and a two-point conversion then pulled Albemarle within a score with 8:01 left to play.
“Cameron Green is our senior,” said Albemarle coach Brandon Isaiah. “We’ve been playing those double wing, triple option teams and he hasn’t had a lot of opportunities to make plays as a safety. We got him involved on offense tonight and he was able to make a lot of plays.”
Albemarle got two more chances after that, with the first coming after the defense pinned Western at their own two yardline with a sack that forced an awkward but productive punt. Albemarle got the ball at midfield and drove inside the red zone and faced fourth and three just inside the 20, which is when Western defensive end Osiris Crutchfield stepped up with 2:52 left to play.
“When we got backed up we knew they needed one more score to go up after that two-point conversion and when you get backed up like that you just kind of go all out,” Crutchfield said. “If you can’t get to the quarterback, you’ve got to do something.”
The Warriors’ pass rushing terror leapt at just the right moment to bat down a DG Archer pass attempt at the line on the fourth down. Crutchfield maintained focus after watching his brother, Noah Crutchfield, suffer a seemingly brutal third quarter shoulder injury, and came up with a huge play at just the right time.
“It’s hard to see your family go down like that honestly,” Osiris said.
But the Western defense wasn’t done. The Warriors gambled on fourth down with under two minutes to play and came up short, forcing Western’s defense to defend another short field. They proved up to the task as a long pass into the right corner of the end zone intended for Cameron Green came up short.
“We took a gamble there at the end and the defense picked us up when we didn’t get it,” Redmond said.
Oliver Herndon gave the Warriors the punch they needed on the ground with 130 yards of clock grinding running, and the junior threw in a 32-yard catch and run for a touchdown in the first half. Herndon’s performance on the ground combined with the Herculean defensive effort late was enough to lift the Warriors to the win.
With the wet conditions, Western came out committed to the run game, driving 63 yards down field all on the ground in the opening drive. Herndon ripped off runs of 15 yards and 14 yards as part of the march.
Albemarle fell short of answering on their opening drive, unable to punch it in. They finally got on the board with a Chandler Carrera field goal in the second quarter, and then cut into a 15-3 Western lead when Archer found Green on an incredible toss to the left corner of the endzone.
Green made a sliding touchdown catch as part of his monster night that included a fumble recovery, a couple of pass breakups and 104 yards on four catches at receiver.
In the end though, Albemarle couldn’t find the play to put them over the hump against the Warriors.
“One inch to the left, one inch to the right…you just never know,” Isaiah said. “At the end of the day the opportunities we just couldn’t make good on them. I’m still excited about the direction we’re going, we’ve just got to keep pushing so we can knock down that door.”
Albemarle will try and knock down the door at home against a talented Powhatan squad that is 2-0 in the Jefferson District while Western, also now 2-0 in the Jefferson, will head to Louisa County to take on the Lions next week.
