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The bounces actually went Monticello’s way, for most of the first half at least. A fumble and a muffed punt by Western Albemarle allowed the Mustangs to stay within striking distance of the visiting Warriors despite the home team struggling in the yardage department.
But when the Western defense came up with a goal line stand and forced a fumble in the third quarter, the finger was out of the dam, and it wasn’t long before the Warriors simply poured it on as their offense clicked after the break and the defense posted a second half shutout to beat Monticello for the third time in the last four regular season meetings, 28-7, in the Jefferson District opener for both squads.
“I thought our kids were relentless today on defense,” said Western coach Ed Redmond. “They played with some conviction, something we’ve been waiting for… Western and Monticello, it’s a rivalry that’s hard to compare. It’s a game that’s circled on both calendars and you learn from it.”
With senior running back Oliver Herndon sidelined, the Warriors had to lean on quarterback Sam Hearn more as a runner than a passer. On the second Western possession of the game, the senior signal caller methodically took his team down the field and capped the drive with a 4-yard keeper.
“The last time we were here we lost,” Hearn said. “The seniors, we were younger back then but we remember the taste in the locker room. We had to come out here and get the job done.”
However, Monticello was able to answer in the second quarter after a few stalled drives and a fumble by Western deep in their own territory. After a penalty, the Mustangs picked up their lone score of the game, a 6-yard plunge from running back Darian Bates. And despite being out gunned offensively, Monticello was in the contest. Unfortunately for the Mustangs, the rest of the game was about penalties, a big turnover, and squandered opportunities.
“You can’t win that way,” said Monticello coach Jeff Lloyd. “I told this group when I took this job that my interpretation of this program had always been that they had great athletes but looked undisciplined. I’m doing everything I can as a head coach (to address that) and we’ll just keep chopping wood until we get there. You can’t win with the amount of penalties we had, and you can’t win turning the ball over like we did. As horrible as we played, we were still in it at the end of the first half.”
Western reclaimed the lead late in the second thanks to its special teams unit as they blocked a Monticello kick to start out with fantastic field position. Hearn picked up his second rushing TD of the game from a yard out just moments later to make it 14-7 in the final seconds of the first half. It was just the beginning of something big for the Warriors.
“To go 99 yards against a quality defense, we had to sustain our effort,” Redmond said. “The kids made plays when we needed them and I just really proud of the effort.”
The Western defense forced a punt on Monticello’s first drive of the second half, but with the Warriors muffing it, Monticello got the ball at the Western 29. With a bevy of flags on the next few plays, the Mustangs were suddenly in their own territory and soon had to punt again with Western’s defense rising to the occasion.
“Western’s not going to beat themselves,” Lloyd said. “Their kids play play hard, they’re big, they’re physical and they dominated us on the line of scrimmage on both sides. But as I told my kids, as bad as we played, we were in this game. We just have to clean things up if we want to be the team I want us to be.”
The Warriors defense put their official stamp on the game on the next Monticello drive after Austin Haverstrom’s 32-yard reception from Kevin Jarrell set up first and goal from the Western 1-yard line. On the very next play, the Mustangs fumbled with Darren Klein coming up with the ball for the Warriors.
“That was big,” said Western defensive lineman Osiris Crutchfield. “Especially when you’re backed up at the one, you’ve got to step up, got to get the momentum back for our guys. We wanted the ball back in Sam Hearn’s hands.”
Soon after that, Western saw Hearn reel off a 42-yard run and then watched the quarterback find Derek Domecq for a 54-yard touchdown pass to make it 21-7.
While Monticello turned the ball over twice in the redzone in the fourth quarter, Western wrapped up the scoring in the contest with Robert Sims capping a drive with 5:44 on a 7-yard run set up by a big pass and catch from Hearn to Michael Vale.
On the night the Western defense held Monticello to just 26 yards rushing as Crutchfield — who had 5.5 tackles, a sack and 1.5 tackles for a loss — along with his fellow defensive lineman dominated the line of scrimmage in all four quarters.
“We knew we could get back there, we have the pass rushers to do it,” Crutchfield said. “Upfront I think we’re one of the better (units) in the district. I think we have the cohesion, the confidence, we’re just working well together right now. We believe in eachother.”
Hearn ended the night going 7-for-10 passing with 133 yards and a touchdown to go with his 164 yards on the ground on 26 attempts and another two touchdowns. Domecq had two catches for 58 yards while Vale had two for 52.
“We knew that we had to spread the ball around,” Hearn said. “We knew that’s how we’d get the win. You have to get everyone involved. (We played like) it was 0-0 going into the half, came out and just executed.”
For Monticello, Jarrell had was 15-for-30 passing with 190 yards. Reid Huffman had five catches for 54 yards while Syrael Breckenridge had two for 53.
Western (3-1) travels to Powhatan (2-2) next week while Monticello (2-2) heads to Charlottesville (3-1).
