Stories

Week Eight Lookback

In a 35-21 victory at home Friday night, St. Anne’s-Belfield held Lee Coppock, the area’s most prolific passer, to his lowest passing total of the season, just 96 yards on 11 of 23 passing.

How’d they do it? They took away the player who has recently emerged as his favorite target.

“We wanted to make sure they couldn’t get him the ball,” said STAB coach John Blake. “We just wanted to make sure that their other kids beat us.”

Sam Dale, in his first year of high school football, tore apart the last three secondaries the Eagles have faced, going for 133 receiving yards against Blue Ridge, 147 against Virginia Episcopal and 242 against Hargrave. Those performances drew the Saints’ eye, which is why STAB had an outside linebacker assigned to follow Dale wherever he went then bump him. After that cornerback Willie McGhee took over with safety help to the inside.

“We were taking him out of the play a lot of the time — Sam Dale is an excellent player,” McGhee said. “I enjoyed playing against him.”

Despite that attention and the hard work of McGhee and the rest of the STAB defense, Dale managed to rip off a 39-yard touchdown run on an endaround that pulled Covenant within a touchdown in the fourth quarter. But Dale only had 25 yards receiving on the night.

“I’ll take that against an athlete like that,” Blake said.

Expect Dale, and in turn Coppock, to bounce back against North Cross Friday and against Christchurch in the Eagles’ season finale next week. Coppock managed to keep the Eagles out of trouble despite Dale being locked up. The junior didn’t make many poor decisions, which kept Covenant within reach and set up the rally effort that fell short.

Madison County checks in at top of region

Madison County is still rolling with an unbeaten 7-0 mark after knocking off George Mason last week. The Mountaineers are also Group A Division 1’s top team in Region B according to the VHSL power rankings, edging out the Dogwood District’s Altavista by a tenth of a point.

Madison appears to be on a collision course with archrival Clarke County, also unbeaten and currently ranked as the second best Division 2 squad in the region.

Buckingham, now at 8-0, sits just behind Clarke in the ratings.

In Group AA, Goochland and Western Albemarle are both in the Division 3 top 10. Western is ranked third in the state behind John Handley and Cave Spring, while Goochland, with its critical victory over Louisa County, edged into the rankings. The Bulldogs sit in the ninth spot just below James Monroe and ahead of Brookville.

Effort not Louisa’s problem

One thing that coach Mark Fischer tried to make abundantly clear about Louisa County’s defeat against Goochland was that the game was not lost for a lack of effort. That’s hard to argue against, particularly when you look at the statistics which were all heavily weighted in favor of the Lions, in particular for total offense and time of possession.

What killed Louisa on Friday was their inability to punch the ball in on two goal line situations. For a team that loves to run the ball, you’d think that the Lions would be licking their chops when it comes to getting within ten yards of the goalline.

However, with Louisa unlikely to pass the ball that far down in Bulldog territory, it appeared that the Goochland coaching staff was more than happy to completely sell out to the run. One would have to think, if the Lions could do things over again they’d try to put the ball in the air more within the Goochland 5-yard line, especially when they were playing against the clock at the end of the second quarter.

Big-time opening season

When Goochland lost to Charlottesville in the first week of Jefferson District play, there were a lot of people scratching their heads and wondering how could the Bulldogs lose the way they did. Some pointed to it as a ‘welcome to the district’ type of moment. Now with two weeks remaining, the fate of the district championship rests out in Goochland. Circle it on your calendars.  Unless William Monroe pulls off a massive upset against the Bulldogs this week, the JD title will be given to the winner of Goochland and Western on November 6th.

It’s hard to imagine a better introduction to the district. One year ago the Bulldogs were a 6-5 Group A team. Now they have an opportunity to win district championship in their first year as a Group AA school. Of course, playing against Warriors will be no easy feat. However, the good news for Goochland is with their victory over the Lions on Friday, whether or not they take down Western, the team should advance to the post season.

FUMA drops three in murderous stretch

It is what it is. Fork Union has lost three straight games. It’s a skid no matter who you look at it, but one thing the Blue Devils can take solace in is that the three teams they lost to happen to be three of the best teams in the state in Woodberry Forest, Liberty Christian and Collegiate.

The other thing that FUMA can hang its hat on is wide receiver/defensive back Akeem Garnett’s performance against Collegiate. Garnett’s first big play came on an 88-yard interception return for a touchdown. However, he managed to top that in the fourth quarter. Facing fourth and goal on the Cougars’ 19-yard line and a five point deficit, there wasn’t any doubt that quarterback Richard Quittenton was going to fire the ball Garnett’s way. Collegiate knew it and put a heavy lick on the big receiver on the end of his fade route, but despite all of that was unable to keep the junior from letting go of the ball as he fell in the corner of the endzone. The hit on Garnett had parents gasping. That he got up was remarkable. That he got up with the ball still in his hands was a testament to the versatility he displays as a receiver. He’s not just a deep threat on a fly route. Garnett can go across the middle and be the kind of possession receiver this team needs.

Still wounded

After the game it was clear on the sidelines and in the locker room just how badly Fork Union wanted the victory over the Cougars after blowing a 17-point lead only to comeback from an 11-point deficit in the middle of the fourth quarter before watching Cougars quarterback Jake McGee rip their hearts out with his touchdown pass to Alex Newsome to snatch back the win. A handful of players were distraught, which in many ways could be a good thing for this team as they try to rally back into their September form and earn a playoff spot.

“We just have to keep fighting and finish,” said FUMA coach Micky Sullivan. “You don’t always get what you want but you’ve got to finish. That’s what were going to focus on from here on out.”

This loss was different than the previous two in more ways than just from a scoreboard stand point. Now with their backs against the wall in the final weeks of the season, will the Blue Devils play with the same desire and dedication as they did in the fourth quarter against Collegiate? No one would argue that they don’t have the talent to do so.

Comments

comments