I know you guys rely on me for my detailed reports but let's face it, these old brain cells can only do so much after seeing 100 points put on the scoreboard and then driving almost 100 miles back home. So for once I am grateful to the fans on here and on the 3-A board for covering most of the action already. So I will just add a few comments here at this late hour.
I would say this game was decided by two major adjustments made by the RHS coaching staff, one in each half. In the first half, Cayden Cook-Cash was handling most of the offense for Riverheads, scoring a pair of early touchdowns, one on the ground and one through the air. So the Gladiator braintrust threw a monkey wrench by inserting LB into the game.
No that does not mean Lord Botetourt in this case, although we heard plenty of LB chants from their fans. No, in this case, the Gladiators' "LB" was Luke Bryant and he was a major reason for this Big Red win tonight. He ran like a man possessed, refusing to be brought down, and I know he scored at least three times.
The reason why his presence made such a difference was because it gave the Cavaliers one more weapon to look for. I had told you guys in a pre-game post that one advantage RHS would have was its depth on the offensive side of the ball. So with Triple C already established as a threat in the game, and Cole Burton also having some good early runs, when the Gladiators threw LB into the game, well let's just say LB had never seen an LB like that LB!
The second adjustment, and I think a Parry McCluer fan if I am not mistaken has already pointed this out in his post, Riverheads' coaching staff is incredible at making halftime adjustments, especially on the defensive side of the ball. And goodness knows adjustments were needed tonight because in that wild and woolly first half, nobody was stopping anybody.
I don't know the Xs and Os of the game well enough to even speculate what those adjustments were, but they were SO effective that the Cavaliers' very late touchdown pass was pretty much their only big play of the second half after they had run roughshod over the Big Red in the first half.
The first half went like this, and like I said, I cannot possibly recap each play.........7-0 Riverheads on a CCC reception; LB ties it at 7 with a touchdown pass of its own; Burton gets horse-collared, leading to a Bennett Dunlap QB sneak for a 14-7 lead; LB ties it at 14 and that was all in the first quarter. Ironically the quarter started with each team turning the ball over on its first possession before all the fireworks started.
With Luke inserted in the early stages of the second quarter and the Cavaliers also running hog wild, the teams combined for seven more touchdowns. However the PATs became a problem after each team had been perfect in the first quarter. With RHS ahead 21-14, the Cavs scored but Riverheads blocked the kick. RHS then moved ahead 28-20 and of course LB came back to score, making it 28-26.
In that situation, some teams would have gone for two and the tie but the Cavs were not ready to chase points. So they kicked again but it sailed wide. RHS scored again to go up 34-26 and had a chance to make it a two-score game but this time they missed the PAT.
The Cavs scored, maybe this was the kickoff return, and that cut it to 34-32. This time they did go for the tie, but RHS stuffed it.
That left the Gladiators just under three minutes to work with and they scored with just 17 seconds left, according to a newspaper article I have read. This time they did get the PAT to take the two-score lead into the locker room.
Even though the missed conversions ended up not being the deciding factor in the game, you could argue that they did put the Cavs in a bit of a hole and possibly made them sweat in the second half. But then when RHS put up two scores in the third quarter to go up 55-32, it was all over but the shouting. In case you haven't picked up on this detail, RHS never trailed in the game.
So definitely one of the more classic games in RHS history and that is saying something. (I will still pick 1999 Luray and 2010 Eastern Montgomery as two better ones, and of course last year's slugfest with Stuarts Draft has to rank up there too.)
But this one came down to RHS' blue-collar guys being better than the Cavs' college prospects that we had heard about. And believe me, their guys lived up to their hype. But I guess we just had the better depth. That paper I alluded to said that RHS had about 570 yards in total offense.
I will also mention that I did not consider it a dirty game and I commend the PA guy for being quite fair to Riverheads throughout the game and mentioning the now 39 game winning streak more than once. The 9-11 memorial to start the game was also a nice touch. Hope everyone had a safe trip home and now we move on to Stuarts Draft next Friday.