Photography courtesy of Tina Quesenberry
Rural Retreat…The Indians of Rural Retreat shutdown the Fort Chiswell Pioneers 27 – 0 in the season opener for both teams. Fort Chiswell was stymied for most of the game on offense as they were held to under 100 yards.
Rural Retreat was lead by senior running back Hunter Ward as he scored two touchdowns and had 18 rushes for 134 yards. Fellow running back Jarred Richardson finished with ten carries for 47 yards.
Fort Chiswell, when they did move the ball, had turnovers that stopped two of their best drives. The Pioneers committed four turnovers of which two were fumbles and two were interceptions.
In the second quarter, the Indians Dalton Arnold returned one interception 20 yards for a touchdown putting the Indians up 20 – 0 at half-time.
A very disappointed Fort Chiswell Pioneer head coach, Todd Tiller, said, “We got our tails kicked. They (Rural Retreat) were more physical on both sides of the ball than we were. Our youth and inexperience showed.” Coach then remarked, “We had a couple of drives in the first half that were stopped by our mistakes. We will go back to work on Monday. We have a lot of work to do.”
The Pioneers offensively ran just 36 plays to Rural Retreat’s 55. Sean Morgan and Mitch Armbrister were held to 18 yards rushing between them. Sophomore, Tanner Bailey caught four passes for 62 yards, and Davin Odum had two receptions. Fort Chiswell will have their home opener next Friday, September 4, as they take on arch rival George Wythe Maroons. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m.
FC 0 0 0 0 0
RR 6 14 7 0 27
FC-rushing-Morgan 6-9, Armbrister 5-9, Moore 4-2
RR-rushing-Ward 18-134, Richardson 10-47, O’Neil 6-29, Sowers 4-(-6)
FC-passing-Moore 6-17-73
RR-passing-Sowers 2-5-36