Month: September 2017

Radford loses yet again in the fourth quarter

Pearisburg…Sometimes history repeats itself. Sometimes teams have trouble winning. Young teams have to learn to win and this year’s Radford Bobcats have resembled all of this after six games.
Tied at 14 all going to the fourth quarter, they came out on the short end of a 28-14 loss to the Giles Spartans.
Down 21-14 with less than five minutes to go, Radford was on the move, but they fumbled at the Giles 20-yard line. The Spartans would then drive to score and put the game away.
Radford was led by freshman PJ Prioleau as he rushed for 136 yards on 15 carries and scored a touchdown. The other score was a Chris Carter 89-yard second half kick-off return that put the Cats up 14-7. Carter had 110 yards on kick-off returns for the game.
Giles (4-2) was led by senior Ryan Beidleman. He carried the pigskin 47 times for 237 yards and scored three touchdowns. James Lyle rushed seven times for 78 yards and a touchdown.
Radford (1-5) finished with 191 total yards while Giles totaled 347 yards. Head coach Matthew Saunders said, ”We once again turned the ball over at a critical time of the game. It’s tough for the kids and I feel bad for them. We have trouble finishing a game off.” He then added, ”We are young but we need to finish the games. We’ll go back to work this coming week.”
Radford has either led or been tied going into the fourth quarter of all six games they have played. In fact in all of their losses, they have been within less than five minutes to go. I guess this team has learned how to lose if there is such a thing, or as some people would say, this team has had growing pains.
The Bobcats will be back on the road this Friday as they go to Floyd to take on the Buffaloes. Kick off is scheduled for 7:00 pm.

 

Radford 7 0 7 0 -14
Giles 0 7 7 14-28

Total Yards- Radford 191, Giles 347

First Downs – Radford 8 , Giles 20

Penalties – Radford – 1-10 yds., Giles 3 -25 yds.

Turnovers – Radford – (2)- 1 interception, 1 fumble, Giles- (1) – fumble

Fort Chiswell wins homecoming game over Auburn

Tyler Jakubiak busting through

Max Meadows…Playing in front of a jam-packed home grandstand, the Fort Chiswell Pioneers won their homecoming game over Auburn 35-7.
Pioneers senior quarterback/wide receiver, Tanner Bailey, scored three touchdowns, two rushing and one receiving, as he accounted for 163 total yards. He rushed the ball 16 times for 107 yards and caught two passes for 56. He scored on runs of 22 and 48 yards and caught a 21-yard touchdown pass from Brody Crockett.

Sean Morgan taking down ball carrier Tristan Perry of Auburn

Auburn’s only score of the game was by Tristan Perry on a big 38-yard run late in the second quarter that cut the Eagles deficit to six, 13-7, with 4:26 before intermission. Perry had 11 carries for 121 yards at the intermission for Auburn (2-4).
The Pioneers scored first as Aaron Crawford recovered an Auburn fumble and on their second play. Bailey raced 22 yards weaving his way into the end zone, and Tyler Dunford’s kick put them up 7-0 with just 51 seconds into the game. He then ran 48 yards with 6:50 to go in the second quarter, but Fort Chiswell (4-1) was left at 13-0 as the point after was blocked. They would strike right back after the Eagles got on the board as Bailey caught a 21-yard pass from Crockett in the right corner of the end zone with just 17 seconds left in the first half. They would then hand the ball off to Anthony Morris on a counter play for the two-point conversion for a 21-7 lead going into intermission.

Logan Newman taking tackling QB Payson Kelley. Also pictured is Hayden Hawks.

They would up the lead to 28-7 with Sean Morgan running in from seven yards out with 1:56 left in the third quarter. They would get their last score of the game with 5:36 left in the final quarter as Crockett, quarterback sneaked in from three yards out and Dunford’s kick made it 35-7. They would then put their junior varsity in for the last three minutes of the game.
Fort Chiswell held the Auburn Eagles to just 35 yards for the entire second half. After his impressive first half, Perry carried the ball nine times the second half for a minus 15 yards. Auburn had 146 total yards of offense at intermission and finished with just 181 for the game.
“Our defense really stepped up in the second half tonight,” said a happy Pioneer head coach Todd Tiller. “We adjusted our inside and outside linebackers at intermission. Auburn hadn’t ran the play hardly any but it really hurt us in the first half. That play hadn’t hardly been used in their first five games. I’m proud of how we shut them down after the adjustments.” Coach then said, “This was as good as we have played on both sides of the ball tonight. We executed pretty good the second half. I thought Tanner Bailey, Sean Morgan, Brody Crockett and Tyler Jakubiak ran well. Our line blocked real well. With the off-week after our loss to Floyd, it seemed like it had been forever since we had played.”
The Pioneers have limited four of their five opponents to under 200 yards in a game. Floyd was the only one to have over 200 yards of offense. The Pioneers will hit the road next Friday as they go to Galax to take on the Maroon Tide on their new turf field. Kick-off for the game will be 7:00 pm.

 

Fort Chiswell – 7 14 7 7 – 35
Auburn – 0 7 0 0 – 7

Rushing – FC – Bailey 16-17, Morgan 14-71, Crockett 5-54, Jakubiak 10-44
Aub.- Perry 20-106, Chestnut 4-6, Kelley 16-49, Marshall 5-12

Receiving – FC- Bailey 2-56, Aub.- Perry 2-8

First Downs – FC – 18 , Aub.- 12

Penalties- FC – 5-47 yds., Aub.- 3-25 yds.

Turnovers – FC- 1 , Aub.- 1

Passing – FC- Crockett 2 of 5 – 1 TD- 56 yds., Aub.- Kelley – 2 for 2 – 0 TD – 8 yds.

 

Pioneers prepare for homecoming against Auburn

Max Meadows…Coming off a bye from last week, the Fort Chiswell Pioneers will be back in action this Friday as they play host to the Auburn Eagles. It will be homecoming for the Pioneers, and they’ve had over a week to to get over their loss to Floyd Co. The Eagles head coach is Cam Akers who is in his second year and has a record of 5-10. His defensive coordinator is Zane Quesenberry in his first year at Auburn. Both Akers and Quesenberry are former Pulaski Co. Cougars. They return six starters on offense and six on defense from last season when they finished with a 3-7 record.
The Pioneers (3-1) are averaging 25 points a game while surrendering 14.5 per game. Auburn will come into the contest with a 2-3 record. They are scoring just under 12 points a game and giving up just over 19 per contest. The Eagles have wins over Craig Co. and Eastern Montgomery. The losses are to Narrows, Floyd Co. and last Friday to George Wythe 34-14. The loss to Floyd was 21-0.
Fort Chiswell lost to Floyd 21-14 on a late interception that the Buffaloes turned into the winning score. The Pioneers beat the Maroons of George Wythe 14-7. Floyd and George Wythe are the two common opponents for the two teams this season.
Auburn players to watch will be running backs Cameron Chestnutt, Tristan Perry and Carter Brockman. The best lineman are Cody Harris a 6-3, 210 senior, Adam Chapman 6-1, 220 senior and Drew Hill a junior who is 6-0, 200. Hunter Keith is a wide receiver to look for and the tight end is Carson East. The Eagles will use Malachi Spencer, Perry and Payson Kelley at quarterback at different times. Kelley, a freshman, will see the most action at QB. On defense Chestnut was an all-conference player last year at safety. Richie Romo, a junior, was one of the best place-kickers in the region. Hill, Harris and Chapman will see lots of action on the defensive line and at linebacker for the Eagles.
Fort Chiswell head coach Todd Tiller said, ”Auburn likes to run the option out of double wing sets. They run the inside veer as well. They will go under center then show motion. They don’t or haven’t thrown that much in the film that we have seen on them.” Coach then added, “Defensively they will run 4-4-3 scheme. They haven’t blitzed that much so far in their five games. The secondary is zone and man to man as well. It depends on the situation for them.“ When asked about the health of his Pioneers after an off week coach replied, “We are in good shape. We hit the weights some on our off week and ran through drills on basic things we do for two-three days last week.“
The Pioneers on offense will start with Brody Crockett at quarterback, Sean Morgan and Tyler Jakubiak will be the running backs. The wide outs will be Tanner Bailey and Aaron Crawford with Anthony Morris at tight end. The center is Logan Smith with Billy Shrewsberry and Jon Gregory at guards. The tackles are Ethan Hawks and Jonah “Loopie” Turpin. Ethan Woods, Zach Johnson and Logan Newman will see action on that side of the ball as well. Defensively Fort Chiswell will go with Shrewsberry, Gregory and Garrett Chrisley upfront. The linebackers will be Bailey, Crawford, Hawks, Woods and Jon Poole. The secondary will consist of Logan Newman, Sean Morgan and Anthony Morris. Zach Johnson and Jakubiak will also play some on defense. Tyler Dunford will be the place-kicker with Dylan Bailey doing the holding and the center will be Tanner Bailey. Tanner Bailey will do the punting as Sean Morgan does the snapping.
Kick-off for the homecoming game at C F McKinney Field at Fort Chiswell High School is 7:00 pm this Friday night.