The Auburn Eagles and Radford Bobcats will face each other one more time. This time will be for a state championship in volleyball. The two teams have met four times, with all four matches going to the defending state champion, Auburn. The two met last week with the Bobcats taking the Eagles to five sets in the regional finals. Auburn (28-0) and Radford (21-6) will go at it this Saturday at Richmond’s Siegel Center for the state title. Auburn is looking to become five-time state champions while the Bobcats are in their first state final. The match is scheduled to get under way at 11 am.
Month: November 2015
Oak Hill stomps St. Ignatius
The Oak Hill Warriors blasted St.Ignatius 114-41 to move their record to 6-1. Six Warrior players finished in double-digit scoring. They were led by Lindell Wigginton with 24 points. Mario Kegler had 17, and Braxton Key 16. Virginia Tech signee Khadim Sy had 13. Devontae Shuler 10 and Matt Coleman also had 10. Sy led Oak Hill with 12 rebounds and Rodney Miller had nine. Coleman was a stat sheet stuffer with eight assists, five rebounds and three steals to go with his 10 points. Oak HIll will be taking a break until December 1st. They will host A.C. Flora at 7 pm in Turner Gym.
Auburn running back to transfer
The news out of Auburn High School in Riner, VA continues. Earlier this week head football coach Jack Turner resigned to re-energize. Now comes the news that junior running back Jeremy Nelson will transfer to Parry McCluer to play football next season. Nelson, who was presented a football for going over 5,000 yards in his career against Radford, will play nest year in white and blue, but it won’t be the Auburn uniform. He’ll be sporting the Fightning Blues of Parry McCluer. Nelson has rushed for 5,680 yards and needs 1,856 to break the VHSL mark set by William Byrd’s OJ Thomason’s record of 7,536. Nelson will join a potent backfield of KJ Cook and Marcellius Dawson. Both of them rushed for over 1,000 yards apiece this past year.
Chance Harman Basketball Classic Schedule
The Chance Harman Basketball Classic lineup has been confirmed. The basketball action will get under way on Friday, January 1. The schedule is as follows:
Friday – January 1
Noon – Auburn vs Parry McCluer
1:30pm- Glenvar vs Grayson Co.
3 pm – Huntington Prep (WV) vs Cape Henry Collegiate
4:30pm – Faith Christian vs Bishop McGuiness (NC)
6:00 pm – Radford vs Blacksburg
8:00 pm – Elev8 Academy (FLA.) vs Mountain Mission School
Saturday – January 2
9:30 am – Eastern Montgomery vs Narrows
11 am – Giles vs George Wythe
12:30 pm -Carroll Co. vs Christiansburg
2 pm – Carlisle vs Mountain Mission School
3:30 – North Cross – Northwest Guilford (NC)
5 pm – Floyd Co. vs Gate City
6:30 – Cape Henry Collegiate vs High Point Christian (NC)
8 pm – Elev8 Academy (FLA) vs Mount Zion (MD)
Oak Hill Academy beats Mountain Mission
The Oak Hill Academy Warriors improved to 5-1 as they defeated visiting Mountain Mission (VA) 72-56. Lindell Wigginton led the Warriors with 25 points. Three other Warriors finished with nine points each: Braxton Key, Matt Coleman and Khadim Sy. Virginia Tech signee Sy also led the Warriors with eight rebounds. Mountain Mission had three players in double figures: Harold Beruti, Maciej Bender and Symon Walczak. The Warriors will host Handle-It-Prep Thursday night. It will be their last game before Thanksgiving break. They will play December 1 versus A.C.Flora out of South Carolina at Oak Hill.
Radford to face Honaker in second round of playoffs
Radford…This Friday night at Norman G. Lineburg Field, Bobcat Stadium, Radford will take on the team that knocked them out of last year’s playoffs, the Honaker Tigers. Last year Radford had to travel to Honaker and was winning 23-21 with just over two minutes to go.
The Tigers would score late and got a two-point conversion to win the ballgame 29-23. They will come to Radford this year, and the Cats will work hard to erase last years contest. To add insult to injury, Radford’s Marcus Finley got hurt in last years game against Honaker. A severe ankle injury cost him most of the Bobcat basketball season, .
Honaker will come into the game with 8 wins and 3 losses, the same as Radford. Head coach Doug Hubbard leads them. They are averaging 32 points a game, while defensively giving up just an average of 12 per game. Their victories are over Lebanon, Castlewood, Eastside, Holston, Grundy, Hurley, Twin Valley, and last week they beat Northwood to advance to play Radford. Their losses are to J.I.Burton, Ridgeview and George Wythe.
Honaker and Radford have two common opponents in George Wythe and Twin Valley. George Wythe beat Honaker at Honaker 21-3. The Bobcats defeated George Wythe at Wytheville 55-27 in the opening game of the season. Honaker beat Twin Valley 45-26, while the Bobcats beat Twin Valley last week in the playoffs, 49-0.
Avin Parrott a senior running back leads the Tigers on offense. Their quarterback is sophomore Hartley Hilton and senior Brent Coleman is their top receiver. Two other kids that will be in on a lot of action on offense will be senior Bryson Bostic and sophomore Matthew Testerman, both running backs.
Defensively the Tigers big man on the line is Josh Miller a senior, along with linebackers Colby Howard and Chris Marshall. Howard is a senior and Marshall a sophomore. Parrott is their secondary mainstay.
Radford head coach Matthew Saunders said, “On offense they like to show different formations. They will run out of a power I. They will show twin wide outs and then two tights. They will show reverse, sweeps, spread and trap.”
Coach then said, “On defense they like to show 4-4 and 5-3 schemes. Most of the time the secondary is cover three, with some man to man. They like to blitz with linebackers from different areas.”
Radford is as healthy as they have probably been for the last four weeks or so. These two teams are no strangers to each other. Second year in a row these two proud football programs have faced off in the second round of the playoffs.
The Bobcats on offense will go with Shawn Reed at center, Wes Parcell and Nick Ridpath at tackles, with Hunter O’Brien and Brett Armentrout at guards. Marcus Finley is at quarterback. The skilled people will be Heth Grant at running back, Nathan Dobos, Mitch White, DJ Baylor and Dontae Biillings at slots and wide receivers. Michael Vick and Markell Thompson will see action at wide out and running back as well.
Radford, when on defense, will go with Ridpath, Bradley Davis and Thompson on the line. Mike Vick, Parcell, Grant, White and Armentrout as the linebackers. The secondary will consist of Dobos, Baylor and Finley. Roam Bonet and Liam Jessie will get some time in also on “D”.
Finley will do the punting, with Logan Jessie doing the placekicking. Elijah Duncan is the long snapper with Finley the holder.
Coach Saunders remarked, “We are facing a strong team with a lot of tradition. They are big, strong and athletic. Parrott and Hilton are very good.”
Kickoff for this battle of two Group 1A West Region teams will be this Friday at 7 pm.
Jack Turner steps down as head football coach of Auburn
Auburn head football coach Jack Turner has stepped down as their head coach. Auburn just played in the playoffs Friday night losing to Rural Retreat. Auburn had lost something like 40 games in a row before Turner took over at the Riner,Virginia school. Coach Turner has taken the Eagles to the playoffs the last three years and was the head man there for four years. Coach said, “I am going to take 2016 off for some health and energy reasons. I am not finished coaching! I still want to coach, but I need to take care of myself and my family for a year.”
He then added, “I will be around watching different teams and games next year. I need to re-energize, and I will come back a better coach. I will watch and learn in 2016. Hopefully something will open up then for 2017.”
Coach Turner played for Pulaski Co. and was an assistant coach there under Joel Hicks for years. He was also the head man for the Cougars. Turner then went to Franklin Co. as a assistant for a year before he got the Auburn job.
Auburn wins volleyball Group 1A West Championship
The Eagles of Auburn volleyball girls defeated the Radford Bobcats 25-21,23-25,19-25,25-16,15-13 to win the title. The three -time state champions had to battle from behind to win the match and improved to 28-0 ,while the Bobcats saw their record fall to 20-6.
Auburn was led by Andrea Tlller,Paige Fisher,Leah Eanest and Corey Altizer. Radford was led by Emma Minnick and julia Hopkins. Both squads will now advance to the state playoffs next week.
Radford pummels Twin Valley
Radford scored four touchdowns in the opening quarter and two more in the second to beat the Panthers of Twin Valley 49-0. The Bobcats’ Heth Grant scored three times and rushed for 102 yards, Marcus Finley rushed for one score and tossed one to Mitch White. He had 27 yards rushing, 36 passing and 50 yards on punt returns. Markell Thompson had one score on 95 yards and carried the pigskin four times. Five Bobcats (8-3) had five different players to score. Grant had three, Finley, DJ Baylor, Mitch White and Thompson had one each. The Radford defense held the Panthers (6-5) to just 24 yards in the first half and 137 for the game. The Bobcats rolled up 378 yards on 18 first downs.
Radford head coach Matthew Saunders said, “I thought we had a great game plan defensively and offensively coming into the game. We had five different kids to score, and we had some weapons. It was good to see Heth Grant back in action, and we get to play another game next week.” The Cats will host Honaker at Bobcat Stadium more than likely next Friday at 7pm.
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Fort Chiswell Pioneers Basketball Christmas Tournament
The Fort Chiswell Pioneers will be hosting their annual Christmas Basketball Tournament that is scheduled for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, December 28-30. The eight team/four games a day affair has named the teams that are entered for the upcoming event as Johnson County, Tennessee, Alleghany, North Carolina, Grayson Co., Floyd Co., Carroll Co, Twin Valley, Radford and host school Fort Chiswell. More details will be coming in the following days.