Riverheads @ Stuarts Draft
- Thread starter gladiatorgrad10
- Start date
Patrick Hite
Staunton News Leader
STUARTS DRAFT — October has been a good month for Stuarts Draft football. Since a late September loss to Staunton, the Cougars have won four games in a row, including Friday night's 42-14 win over Riverheads.
Draft senior quarterback Landon Graber finished with 197 yards passing, including three touchdowns, and 85 yards rushing.
The Cougars finished with 248 yards on the ground. Da'shea Smith led the running attack with 143 yards on 10 carries and an 82-yard touchdown run to start the third quarter, giving Draft a 28-0 lead.
"It comes with a lot of preparation and hard work in the offseason, hard work in practice," Graber said of the October turnaround for this team. "We knew this was going to be a big game. It's a rivalry. It was senior night. A lot of people stepped up."
Stuarts Draft came into the game tied for fifth in the Region 2B playoff picture. Friday's win will only help the Cougars as they try to make sure the seniors get at least one more game on their home field.
"We had a little midseason lull there and we challenged them," Stuarts Draft coach Nathan Floyd said. "We challenged their physicality, we challenged them mentally. And we're progressively getting better each and every week. That's what you want. You don't want to plateau. You want to keep taking those steps forward."
Stuarts Draft is now 7-2 heading into its bye week.
In other Shenandoah District action Wilson Memorial won its third game in a row, beating Waynesboro 51-14. Wilson also has a bye next week. Staunton beat Buffalo Gap 56-35 to improve to 6-2 on the season. Staunton plays Fort Defiance next Friday. Buffalo Gap has a bye.
Staunton News Leader
STUARTS DRAFT — October has been a good month for Stuarts Draft football. Since a late September loss to Staunton, the Cougars have won four games in a row, including Friday night's 42-14 win over Riverheads.
Draft senior quarterback Landon Graber finished with 197 yards passing, including three touchdowns, and 85 yards rushing.
The Cougars finished with 248 yards on the ground. Da'shea Smith led the running attack with 143 yards on 10 carries and an 82-yard touchdown run to start the third quarter, giving Draft a 28-0 lead.
"It comes with a lot of preparation and hard work in the offseason, hard work in practice," Graber said of the October turnaround for this team. "We knew this was going to be a big game. It's a rivalry. It was senior night. A lot of people stepped up."
Stuarts Draft came into the game tied for fifth in the Region 2B playoff picture. Friday's win will only help the Cougars as they try to make sure the seniors get at least one more game on their home field.
"We had a little midseason lull there and we challenged them," Stuarts Draft coach Nathan Floyd said. "We challenged their physicality, we challenged them mentally. And we're progressively getting better each and every week. That's what you want. You don't want to plateau. You want to keep taking those steps forward."
Stuarts Draft is now 7-2 heading into its bye week.
In other Shenandoah District action Wilson Memorial won its third game in a row, beating Waynesboro 51-14. Wilson also has a bye next week. Staunton beat Buffalo Gap 56-35 to improve to 6-2 on the season. Staunton plays Fort Defiance next Friday. Buffalo Gap has a bye.
It is obvious from the comments posted so far that SD rolled in this one. In fact I am not sure when I have ever seen a high school team play a more complete game. As you can see above, Graber's statistics were through the roof. In addition to that, I believe I am correct that the Cougars did not have either a turnover or a penalty in this game, and you can't get any better than that.
Their defense was equally outstanding, at least in the first half, as I overheard someone say that Riverheads had 21 yards of offense at halftime. As if that news wasn't bad enough for Riverheads, standout receiver and punter Brody Phillips went out very early with a leg injury. That was on top of the absence of leading scorer Jonathan Talbott who was injured last week and did even dress out tonight. Needless to say, after the Waynesboro game next week, the Gladiators will very much welcome their bye week as a chance to get as healthy as possible for the playoffs.
With the Cougars in complete control at the break, I am sure the conversation in the locker room was about playing the second half with pride and not giving up. Although
Their defense was equally outstanding, at least in the first half, as I overheard someone say that Riverheads had 21 yards of offense at halftime. As if that news wasn't bad enough for Riverheads, standout receiver and punter Brody Phillips went out very early with a leg injury. That was on top of the absence of leading scorer Jonathan Talbott who was injured last week and did even dress out tonight. Needless to say, after the Waynesboro game next week, the Gladiators will very much welcome their bye week as a chance to get as healthy as possible for the playoffs.
With the Cougars in complete control at the break, I am sure the conversation in the locker room was about playing the second half with pride and not giving up. Although
Can I say @#$^*&%%*%* son of a biscuit eater or words to that effect?
I had finished saying what I wanted to say and hit the reply button and as you can see, the machine decided to only show you about half of what I had typed. If there is a way to find the rest of it I don't know what it is.
I had recapped the scoring and congratulated Graber and his fellow seniors on their incredible game but at the same time gave the Big Red credit for not giving up. I then closed by trying to explain that we have five, maybe even six, quality teams headed to the playoffs but that the district title is still up for grabs, contrary to some folks thinking that the Cougars clinched it with this win. So I will try another time to go into that.
I had finished saying what I wanted to say and hit the reply button and as you can see, the machine decided to only show you about half of what I had typed. If there is a way to find the rest of it I don't know what it is.
I had recapped the scoring and congratulated Graber and his fellow seniors on their incredible game but at the same time gave the Big Red credit for not giving up. I then closed by trying to explain that we have five, maybe even six, quality teams headed to the playoffs but that the district title is still up for grabs, contrary to some folks thinking that the Cougars clinched it with this win. So I will try another time to go into that.
Couldn't believe this score when seeing it and don't mean to be offense to Draft, but that margin of victory? Rivwrheads has had a couple of games where they just don't seem like the same team at least when looking at scores. Winning at Christiansburg and handling Staunton, but being blasted by FD and Draft. Schizophrenic this year for the Red Team, but dangerous as a rattle snake hidden under the driver's seat of a VW Beetle come playoff time.