Sports

09 17

2021 Prep football: Douglas Freeman at Atlee 7:00 p.m.

09 17

2021 Prep football: Mills Godwin at Hanover 7:00 p.m.

| Youth, High School, College, Recreational & Professional

Raiders’ rushing assault grounds Eagles

By Weldon Bradshaw for the Times-Dispatch

RICHMOND – Caleb Warren’s smile spoke volumes.

The 5-foot-10, 205-pound Atlee High School running back had just rushed 21 times for 203 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Raiders to a 27-7 victory over Mills Godwin Friday night at Axselle Stadium, and now, when asked to reflect upon his performance, he offered thanks to the crew that made it possible.

“First,” he said without hesitation, “I give credit to my O-line for opening the holes for me and allowing me to gain that many yards.”

He went on to explain that the Eagles, who stacked the box in an effort to thwart the visitors’ ram-it-down-your-throat running game, appeared to blitz defenders in a manner that allowed the Raiders’ forward wall to fend them off, thereby providing alleys for him and Keith Green (13 carries, 113 yards) into the open spaces of the secondary.

Who are those big guys who labor, often in anonymity, in the trenches?

Enabling the Raiders to dominate the line of scrimmage and establish the run were tackles Zedric Hayes and Matthew Sharp, guards Owen Ham and Brock Taylor, center Mason Myers and tight end Zion Bryson.

“We have a lot of good leaders on this football team, a lot of high-character guys,” said Atlee

Panthers squeak by Patriots in OT

By Zach Joachim and Lily Betts Richmond Times-Dispatch

Joel Klein for The Local

Atlee running back Keith Green fi nds an open path to the end zone as he scores from 16-yards out in the Raiders’ 27-7 win Friday.

coach Matt Gray, whose squad improved to 3-0. “They try to do things the right way. Our focus going in is to be the best we can be. They prepared well. I’m really proud of the guys.”

Green, a 6-1, 205-pound senior, scored the Raiders’ first touchdown on a 16-yard run with 16.8 seconds left in the half to culminate a five-play, 80-yard drive. Zach Tschantre added the point-after.

The Eagles (0-2) responded quickly when quarterback Luke Calveric, on first-and-10 on his 40, threw deep to Justin Harris, who hauled in the pass in traffic and raced the final 15 yards to the house 4.7 seconds before halftime. Matthew Gavin’s PAT sent Godwin into the break tied and, it seemed, with a modicum of momentum.

It was the Raiders, though, who returned to the glistening turf as if on a mission.

Their first drive (seven plays, 57 yards) ended with Green’s 13-yard run off the right side at 7:23 of the third quarter.

After their defense stopped the Eagles in the red zone, they responded with an eight-play, 80-yard drive which ended with Warren’s 10-yard TD run 23 seconds into the fourth quarter.

As the plucky Eagles did all within their power to defend the run, Atlee traveled 73 yards in nine plays, the last a 1-yard run off the left side by Warren 2:03 from the end.

The Raiders amassed 344 yards (323 by land, 21 by air) and 16 first downs. They surrendered 299 yards (116 rushing, 183 passing) and 11 first downs.

“We wanted to stop the run,” said Green, who plays free safety. “Once we get that straight, we wanted to establish stopping the pass. I give credit to our linebackers. They were flying around the field. Our D-line too.

“They [the Eagles] weren’t running much. They found some little gaps, but we shifted and stopped everything.”

Godwin threw for 183 yards, he was reminded.

“We ran for more,” he responded with a laugh.

Weldon Bradshaw can be reached at sports@mechlocal. com.

HENRICO – On a fourth-and-goal in overtime with the game on the line, Hermitage quarterback Jaylen Burton barbecued the Patrick Henry defense all the way to Buffalo Wild Wings, his kicker’s favorite restaurant.

“I told him we gonna go to B-Dubs tonight,” Burton said of his encouragement to his kicker, Braden Meginity, after Burton’s 6-yard touchdown scamper set up Meginity’s gamewinning extra point to give No. 9 Hermitage a 27-26 victory over No. 5 Patrick Henry Friday night.

Minutes earlier, Meginity missed a gamewinning field goal as regulation expired.

“It was a lot of pressure, but they just teach you if you miss the kick, forget it. If you make mistakes, gotta

see PATRIOTS, pg. 24

Continued from pg. 23

pick your head up,” Meginity said after his team mobbed him at midfield.

“There’s always going to be another kick in front of you.”

Burton was getting barbecue wings, and Meginity said he’d down 20 mild.

“I will never lose trust in my brothers,” Burton said of what went through his head as he shimmied and shaked his way to the end zone.

The path traveled to Burton and Meginity’s heroics was a winding, disjointed one full of momentum swings and a whopping 22 penalties. A crowd of 1,000-plus filled Hermitage’s historic Chester E. Fritz Stadium, and the Panthers entered to a roaring ovation for their first game of the season after three consecutive postponements.

The game was agreed upon between the two schools earlier in the week after both of their opponents postponed the originally scheduled contests. It also was the first game for new Panthers coach Timothy JeanPierre, who played at Hermitage in the early 2000s.

Hermitage jumped to a 7-0 lead on the first drive of the game when Brailen Jones blocked a Patriots punt and wrestled the ball from a scrum to take it back 31 yards to the end zone.

But Patrick Henry (1-1) controlled the flow of the game for much of the first half behind freshman phenom Dashawn Green, a shifty running back with explosive speed. He carried 30 times for 225 yards and three touchdowns.

Green had a 38-yard score in the second quarter, and PH quarterback Jordan Allen added a 4-yard TD run to give the Patriots a 12-7 lead late in the second quarter.

But Burton engineered an 11-play scoring drive in the final minutes of the half, with lots of help from his primary target, receiver Jhakiri Bolden (7 catches, 96 yards). That drive ended in a 12-yard TD pass from Burton to running back Jeremiah Coney, and the Panthers took a 13-12 lead into the break.

That score held until early in the fourth quarter, when Burton showed off his escapability on a vital third-and-13 at the PH 43. A great thrower on the run, Burton eluded defenders to fire a pretty 40-yard bomb to Bolden. Coney plunged in from 3 yards out to make it 20-12.

But just five plays later, Green got loose off right tackle and ran 45 yards untouched to the house. Allen found Jayden Mines just over the left pylon for the 2-point conversion to knot things at 20-all.

Behind Coney and Burton, Hermitage marched 79 yards in 12 plays as the clock wound down, setting up a field goal to win it from the 14-yard line.

As the kick sailed wide left, the Patriots sideline exploded, and Panther heads sank into hands in the stands and all over the field.

But Burton rallied the troops, Meginity picked himself up, and the Panthers claimed the win.

Mavericks slip by Mustangs

MECHANICSVILLE – When Douglas Freeman broke into the T-D Top 10 last week, it was on the heels of a 37-9 win against James River where quarterback Owen Fallen threw for five touchdowns.

With their 21-6 win against Mechanicsville during Friday night’s game, the Mavericks (3-0) proved themselves to be a dynamic threat. Of their 393 total offensive yards, Douglas Freeman’s rushers were responsible for 269.

Senior running back Bradley Perkins — in a breakout season following a series of injuries that kept him out of play for most of the past two years — led the way with 189 yards and two scores in 14 carries.

Along with a firing offense, Douglas Freeman coach George Bland highlighted a steady defense that kept the Mustangs (1-2) off the scoreboard until the final seconds of the game.

“Our defense was on all night, and our offensive line really answered a challenge to keep our running game going,” Bland said.

Bland’s O-line boasts two of three returning offensive starters in center Alex Braun and lineman Eddie Allen. The rest of its go-tos are in their first year of varsity football. While they had the potential to be speedy and effective, doing it in-game is what counts.

So far, it’s all working out for the Mavericks.

Along with the serious threats that Fallen and Perkins posed, the team’s options ran deep and confident enough to keep the Mustangs’ defense guessing.

This was displayed in Douglas Freeman’s second touchdown of the night, when Farrell drove his corps forward in a quick series of plays that ended with a trick play that easily ushered him into the end zone.

Bland said that he wasn’t surprised by his team’s skill but that the cohesion they’ve found has boosted their play to another level.

“We’re really coming together as a team. … Big guys are making big plays when we need them most,” Bland said. “It’s certainly nice as a play caller to be able to put together some explosive plays, something we’ve missed in the past.”

And while the Mavericks kept the Mustangs defense busy, it wasn’t until late in the fourth quarter that they managed to collect a tally.

A controversial pass interference call brought Mechanicsville to within 12 yards, and after a moment’s scramble, quarterback Jordan Callahan beat the final buzzer with a pass to Josh Morris, ruining the visitor’s hope for a shutout.

While the Mustangs don’t have much to show on the stats sheet, they played a steady game but couldn’t produce the breakout moments that boosted the Mavericks.

“You’ve got to hand it to [Mechanicsville] Coach Turnage, his game plan was excellent and they did a great job over there,” Bland said. “We always know that the Mechanicsville team is going to be very well-coached, and we were just able to make a few big plays.”

Douglas Freeman is set to face off against an undefeated Atlee team next week, while Mechanicsville has a bye before it takes the field against Varina.

Zach Joachim can be reached at zjoachim@timesdispatch.com.

Lily Betts can be reached at lbetts@timesdispatch.com.

Alexa Welch Edlund/Times-Dispatch

Patrick Henry’s Jordan Allen avoids a tackle by Hermitage’s Corey Morton in the Patriots’ 27-26 overtime loss Friday.

R-MC uses aerial attack to whip Catholic

By Rob Witham for Th e Local

ASHLAND – Throughout his 18-year tenure as head coach of Randolph-Macon’s football team, Pedro Arruza has fielded teams known for their toughness, featuring a grinding offense that wears down opponents and chews up the clock.

But now, you can add “field stretchers” to their resume, as the Yellow Jackets scored on passing plays of 70, 59, 94 and 85 yards to rout the Catholic University Cardinals 62-10 on Saturday in front of a packed house at Day Field. RandolphMacon moves to 2-0 as they prepare for Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) play, which begins next week at Bridgewater.

“It looked like we gave good effort. We still made some pretty big mistakes,” Yellow Jackets head coach Pedro Arruza noted. “We’ve obviously got a lot of things to clean up.”

A major reason why Arruza became the winningest coach in Randolph-Macon history Saturday with 106 wins – surpassing the late Ted Keller – is his ability to stay laser focused on the bigger picture. For the second straight week, starting quarterback Presley Egbers threw an interception in the red zone. A Kyle Ringley interception on the second play of the third quarter was negated by an offside penalty.

The Cardinals proceeded to drive for a field goal to cut the 28-7 halftime margin to 28-10. It seems inconsequential to many looking back, but a similar situation against top Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) foes down the road, beginning Saturday at Bridgewater, could be costly.

But no one can blame the Yellow Jacket faithful for beam-

Joel Klein for The Local

Randolph-Macon running back Aaron Acevedo runs over Catholic defensive back Matt Grant for a 17-yard gain to the Catholic 3. Acevedo carried the ball 10 times for 56 yards in the Yellow Jackets’ 62-10 victory over the Cardinals Saturday at Day Field.

ing with pride as Egbers passed for three touchdowns, including a perfectly executed 59-yard screen pass to ODAC Offensive Player of The Week Justin DeLeon (Powhatan) to extend the lead to 35-10 midway through the third period. After DeLeon scored on a one-yard run to begin the game, Egbers connected with the speedy David Wallis on a 70-yard strike for a 14-0 advantage less than 10 minutes into the contest.

Catholic quarterback Madden Lowe, who threw five touchdown passes in the Cardinals’ opening win over McDaniel, found Preston Jeffrey on the first play of the second period for a 17-yard touchdown reception. But RandolphMacon (2-0) answered with an 11-play drive, capped by an Egbers pass to Holden Hodge for a score. Then, just before halftime, DeLeon raced 10 yards into the end zone to put the lead at 21 at intermission.

After an Owen Arruza interception at the Catholic 33 with 5:52 left in the third quarter, Coach Arruza switched to Brecht Heuchan under center. The first five play calls were passes to move the Yellow Jackets into the red zone, where tailback Kwesi Clarke scored his first collegiate touchdown on a 10-yard run.

After the Cardinals were stopped on fourth down at the Randolph-Macon 5, Huechan, on second down unloaded a bomb to Zach Bowman, who beat two Catholic defenders for a 94-yard touchdown, the longest for Randolph-Macon since a 95-yard touchdown pass from John Buehler to Jeff Hutchinson in the 1976 version of “The Game” against HampdenSydney.

For an encore, the next drive featured Heuchan finding Dallas Holmes over the middle on a 17-yard pass. The ball was punched out of his hands by James Campione, but it bounced off the turf back into Holmes’ possession, and he raced the final 63 yards for what ended up being an 85-yard touchdown.

Egbers threw for 230 yards, Heuchan for 213. On the afternoon, the Yellow Jackets amassed 694 yards of total offense on 69 plays, an average of 10.1 yards per play. DeLeon, who now leads the ODAC in rushing with 229 yards, ended with 106 on the ground Saturday, his second 100-yard performance of the young season.

“I came in at halftime and told the older guys, if you guys care about your teammates and want them to play, let’s take care of business so we don’t get into a deal where this is a game in the fourth quarter,” Arruza explained when asked about the decision to liberally substitute on both sides of the ball late in the third period.

“It was good to get evaluation on some guys, it was good to get some guys some game experience,” Arruza said. “We’re going to need for some of those guys to play for us down the stretch.”

The defense held Catholic to 30 rushing yards, and, while Lowe threw for 290 yards, many of his 33 completions were kept in front of the secondary, limiting the Cardinals’ big play ability.

Next, it is a battle of the

see WHIP, pg. 26 The Mechanicsville Local September 15, 2021 25

Truex overcomes error, wins at Richmond

By Nick Vandeloecht Richmond Suburban News

RICHMOND – After a hot start to the season that saw him win three of the NASCAR Cup Series’ first 12 races in the 2021 regular season, Martin Truex Jr. reasserted himself as one of the championship favorites when he overtook Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch in the final stage and went on to win the Federated Auto Parts 400, the second race in the opening Round of 16 in the Cup Series’ playoffs, at Richmond Raceway Saturday.

Truex and Chesterfield native Hamlin, who took second in the race and won at Darlington last week, are both locked into the Round of 12.

Christopher Bell made it a 1-2-3 finish for Joe Gibbs Racing for the second time in three seasons at Richmond Raceway in the Cup Series. Chase Elliott bounced back from a rough pit stop in the second stage to place fourth and Joey Logano rounded out the top five.

Kyle Larson, who started the race in the back because of failing prerace tech twice, rose through the field before settling into sixth. Ross Chastain was the highest-placing non-playoff driver with a finish of seventh.

Kevin Harvick, who consistently rode in the top 10 throughout the entire night, came home eighth.

Kyle Busch early in the race was penalized for equipment interference when a tire on his pit stop got away from his crew and rolled into another team’s pit stall. He bounced back, briefly leading before falling behind Truex with less than 60 laps to go, and then losing multiple spots on a penalty for speeding on pit road. He ultimately salvaged a ninth-place run to put all four JGR Toyotas inside the top 10.

Ryan Blaney rounded out the top 10.

After nine playoff drivers finished outside of the top 15 last week at Darlington, 13 placed in the top 15 on Saturday. Finishing 12th through 15th were Alex Bowman, Brad Keselowski, Aric Almirola and Tyler Reddick. William Byron finished 19th.

After going winless in the first 80 short-track races of his Cup career, Truex has now won six of the last 13, including three of the last five races at Richmond. All four of Truex’s Cup wins this year have come on racetracks that utilize the 750-horsepower package. The series will revisit two of the four tracks where he’s won: Martinsville for the penultimate race and Phoenix for the championship race.

Truex got black-flagged in the opening circuits after beating Hamlin, the leader for the start of the race, to the startfinish line. Truex had to serve the penalty on pit road, but the competition caution helped him regroup with the field, and he proceeded to work his way up to eighth place by the end of Stage 1, which was won by Hamlin.

“That was frustrating, I’m not going to lie, but I knew we’d have a good-enough car to (overcome) it. It felt pretty good those first couple of laps,” Truex said in his televised postrace interview. “Just one of those things: you’ve got to put it out of your mind and you’ve got to go race and we knew there was a lot on the line tonight.”

The Stage 2 lead bounced between Hamlin and Chase Elliott, but an issue on the pit stop with less than 60 to go in the segment knocked Elliott outside of the top 10 and initially put him a lap down. Hamlin from there was able to complete the stage sweep uncontested.

In the early part of the final stage, Truex overtook Hamlin on lap 268, and then traded the lead with Kyle Busch on consecutive pit stops before holding off a hard-charging Hamlin across the final 54 circuits.

Truex’s triumph came on the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

“It’s an important day in our history, and I think all of us here, we’re proud to win, and this car’s amazing, and there’s so many people to thank, but what a day to win on. It reminds you the honor it is – the privilege it is – to get to come out here and do this,” Truex said in his televised postrace interview. “We couldn’t do any of these kind of things without the men and women that take care of us and all the first responders, police officers, firefighters, the military – you name it. NASCAR’s very patriotic, we’re very proud…very proud of everybody to be able to do this today.”

Hard-hitting misfortune found Kurt Busch early in the race. Busch was battling on the outside of Blaney for third place when his left rear tire went down, sending his No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet Camaro rear-first into the outside wall through turns 1 and 2. Busch excited the race in 37th place, and the DNF dropped him down to 12th in playoff standings where he is tied in points with Alex Bowman.

Michael McDowell’s struggles in his first year as a playoff contender continued as he got hit with three speeding penalties on pit road. McDowell never recovered, finishing 28th.

Larson holds the points lead after Saturday’s race. Sitting fourth through 12th behind the top three of Larson, Hamlin and Truex are Logano, Blaney, Harvick, Ellliott, Bell, Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Almirola and Kurt Busch.

The four drivers currently below the cutline in 13th through 16th are Bowman, Reddick, Byron and McDowell.

The Round of 16 wraps up next Saturday with the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at the half-mile oval of Bristol Motor Speedway. The race will air on NBCSN at 7:30 p.m.

Nick Vandeloecht is sports editor of Powhatan Today and Goochland Gazette. He can be reached at nvandeloecht@powhatantoday.com.

James Wallace/Times-Dispatch

Martin Truex Jr. celebrates in victory lane after winning the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway Saturday night.

For more NASCAR coverage, go to https://richmond.com/community/mechanicsville-local/

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last two conference champions. The last time RandolphMacon traveled to Bridgewater in November, 2019, they lost what was the de facto ODAC championship game. The Yellow Jackets won the title in the abbreviated 2020 season held last spring.

When asked if the team might get overconfident after Saturday’s win, the head coach noted his solution.

“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” Arruza said. “I’m going to take care of that tomorrow (Sunday).”

Rob Witham can be reached at sports@mechlocal.com.