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10 15
2021 Prep football: Varina at Atlee 7:00 p.m.
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10 15
2021 Prep football: Highland Springs at Hanover 7:00 p.m.
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Sahnow, Hawks battle; corral Mustangs
By Dave Lawrence Sports Editor
MECHANICSVILLE — Hanover’s Beau Sahnow has been a big contributor as a running back and receiver to the Hawks’ offense this year. Friday night at Mechanicsville, he added quarterback to his list of skills.
Sahnow filled in for an ailing Cole Elrod and performed admirably, amassing 292 yards of offense — 140 rushing and 152 passing — in leading the Hawks to a 35-28 victory.
Sahnow ran for two of Hanover’s five touchdowns and passed for a third. He said the Hawks have taken a beating recently in terms of injuries and worked hard to get ready for Mechanicsville.
“There was a lot of preparation this week. We got put in a tough situation with everybody (out),” Sahnow said. “We’ve had a lot of injuries recently. … But I had to focus up this week, do my job. I got it done.”
Three minutes into the game, it looked like it might be a Hanover rout. The Hawks had jumped out to a 14-0 lead on the backs of a 2-yard touchdown run by James Poole and Sahnow’s 34-yard pass to Chase Flora. Nicholas Harrington added the extra points in both cases.
A rout was not in the cards, however. The Mustangs steadied themselves and fought back into contention. Their comeback began with a sustained drive that culminated in a 2-yard run by Logan Harris. Thomas Richman’s point-after made it 14-7 with 2:56 left in the first quarter.
Both teams scored a touchdown in the final three minutes of the first half. Hanover got on the board first on a 15-yard run by Sahnow with 3:09 left in the half, but Harrington’s kick went astray. Mechanicsville quarterback Jordan Callahan scored from 12-yards out with 49 seconds to go before intermission. Richman’s kick made it 20-14.
Hanover struck first early in the second half with Sahnow’s 21-yard scoring run. Harrington’s kick made it 27-14, but the Mustangs were done fighting.
Callahan scored on a 2-yard run with 5:42 remaining in the third quarter and Colby Messe scored on an 11-yard run with 6:42 remaining in the game. Richman’s aim was true on both point-afters, putting the Mustangs on top 28-27.
The Hawks had to work fast to respond, else the clock turn against them. Sahnow wasn’t rattled.
“I think that’s just my character. That’s who I am,” Sahnow said. “[Hanover head coach Sam Rogers] was on the sidelines trying to talk to me, to keep me calm. I thought I was already calm. I was trying to keep everybody else calm because if I’m panicking then they’re going to panic.”
Sahnow helped boost every Hawks’ mood when he spotted wide receiver Chase Flora (six catches, 119 yards) a step or
see CORRAL, pg. 25 22 The Mechanicsville Local October 13, 2021
Dave Lawrence/The Local
Hanover quarterback Beau Sahnow (7) keeps his guard up as Mechanicsville defender Logan Harris (2) tries to run him down in the Hawks’ 35-28 victory over the host Mustangs on Friday, Oct. 8, 2021. Sahnow slipped away for a 15-yard touchdown.
Explosive Springers handle Patrick Henry
By Weldon Bradshaw for the Times-Dispatch
ASHLAND — It was the old post route, basic as it gets.
Highland Springs receiver Latrell Sutton split wide left, sprinted downfield on the snap, then cut right as if headed directly toward the goal post.
As he read the secondary, found a seam between defenders and slipped into the open, quarterback Khristian Martin sighted him and drilled a perfect spiral into his outstretched hands.
There was nothing but green between him and the end zone.
It was another big play — this one on fourth-and-10 from the Patrick Henry 35 — that the Springers, down 14-13 a half-minute before halftime, employed en route to a 41-28 victory over the Patriots under the Friday night lights in Hanover County.
“That credit goes to Michael Hodge,” said Highland Springs coach Loren Johnson, whose squad, No. 1 in The TimesDispatch Top 10, improved to 4-2. “Our kids see things on the field. Mike Hodge ran off the field and said, ‘Coach, we can run this play.’ Then, he ran back on the field. The ball was supposed to go to him.
“The quarterback threw it to Latrell Sutton. That says a lot about the unselfishness of our team and how well we can play when we play as a unit.”
The play-as-a-unit concept was the Springers’ modus operandi on this cool, clear evening.
Twice in the first half, the No. 6 Patriots (4-2) stung them with quick-strike touchdowns: Jayden Mines’ 79-yard kickoff return and Camden Byrd’s 18-yard interception return after picking off a pass batted into the air at the line of scrim-
Joel Klein for The Local
Above, Patrick Henry wide receiver Jayden Mines avoids the tackle attempt of Highland Springs defensive back Daquan Giles in the No. 6 Patriots’ 41-28 loss to No. 1 Highland Springs at Patrick Henry Friday night. Mines caught six passes for 71 yards and a touchdown as well as returning a kickoff for a TD. Left, Patrick Henry linebacker Greg Foster tries to block Highland Springs quarterback Khristian Martin’s pass.
mage by teammate Gregory Foster.
Twice they trailed, the first
time after Byrd’s TD and a 2-point Jordan Allen-to-Mines conversion and the second when quarterback Allen raced 35 yards for a touchdown and Richard Crabbe kicked the extra point to conclude the Patriots’ initial second-half drive.
Down 21-20 midway through the third period, the Springers scored three straight times (runs of 5 yards by Takye Heath, 12 yards by Hodge, and 7 yards by Marcel Fleming) after short-field drives to put the game away.
“Football is four quarters,”
see SPRINGERS, pg. 25
Kickers leap into fourth
Staff reports sports@mechlocal.com
With their fourth-straight victory — and second in a week — the Richmond Kickers leaped from eighth to fourth in USL League One standings with three games remaining in the regular season.
Ivan Magalhães scored in the 95th minute to lead the Kickers to a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over North Texas SC in Arlington, Texas, Sunday night.
Blaine Ferri put the hosts ahead with a goal in the 33rd minute. Richmond (10-8-7) played catch-up almost to the end before Zaca Moran scored the equalizer in the 81st minute.
Both teams, desperately seeking the three points that would come from the win, battled hard in the six minutes of stoppage time for a winner. In the end, Nil Vinyals found Magalhães in the North Texas box and Magalhães fired a header into the net for the win.
Richmond began the week at City Stadium Wednesday and wasted little time earning an advantage over visitor Forward Madison FC. In the eighth minute, Chris Cole sent a low cross pass into the Madison box to striker Emiliano Terzaghi, who played the pass off the side of his foot into the net.
The Kickers then parried every Madison attack afterward to earn a 1-0 shutout — the 10th clean sheet of the season for Richmond goalkeeper Akira Fitzgerald.
Richmond will host Forward Madison FC Saturday at City Stadium at 6:30 p.m.
R-MC earns homecoming win in fi nal seconds
By Rob Witham for Th e Local
ASHLAND — On a day where a nearly century-old football rivalry unveiled its final chapter, the finale for the home team was straight out of Hollywood.
After watching two wouldbe third quarter touchdowns go up in smoke due to fumbles, having a punt blocked for a safety, and falling behind by four points in the fourth quarter, Randolph-Macon got the one big defensive stop that eluded them two weeks prior, then scored with 19 seconds left to steal a 34-31 victory over the Wasps of Emory and Henry.
The Yellow Jackets (5-1) won their fifth straight over the Wasps in what will be their final meeting for the foreseeable future with Emory and Henry moving to NCAA Division II in 2022. They’ve been Old Dominion Athletic Conference rivals since the conference’s founding and played their first game against each other in 1929.
Despite a 254-yard rushing performance by Wasp senior tailback Devontae Jordan, which included three touchdown runs, the Yellow Jackets stopped him on his final carry on a fourth down, needing just 2 yards to seal the victory. The tackle by Silas James for no gain gave the offense possession with 1:47 left and no timeouts.
Sophomore quarterback Brecht Heuchan went to work, finding Tim Hanratty for 9 yards, then launching a bomb to Zach Bowman for 49 yards to the Emory and Henry 15.
On fourth down, after a 3-yard rush and two incompletions, Heuchan looked for Hanratty in the end zone, but missed him. However, a flag flew in, as pass interference was called against the Wasps for the third time in the contest, giving Randolph-Macon a first down at the 3.
Heuchan then found Joey Hunt, who had just enough separation on his defender to catch the football in the back corner of the end zone with 19 seconds left for the lead.
On the day, Heuchan was 7 of 13 for 259 yards and two touchdowns.
“Man, what a performance there at the end by the receivers, by the offensive line to protect, by Brecht who made some unbelievable throws,” noted Yellow Jacket head coach Pedro Arruza.
Emory and Henry’s last prayer went unanswered, as Kyle Short’s pass was intercepted by Erik Harris at midfield. The Yellow Jackets celebrated a Homecoming win, but Arruza harkened back to the first day of practice, reminding his team of a then-potential problem that became a near-disastrous reality.
“This has been an issue we’ve talked about since the start of the year, his ball security, the other backs’ ball security,” Arruza said. “Hopefully this will be a wake-up call. As a running back, you need to know when to go down.”
“His” referred to Justin DeLeon, the talented senior tailback who rushed for 202 yards and two first half touchdowns, but fumbled the football twice in the third period, once on a first and goal at the 5 as he neared the goal line after the Wasps muffed a punt deep in their own territory, and later on a run where he was en route to a 44-yard touchdown scamper when Jaylyn Kreimes punched the ball out of his hands from behind, forcing a touchback.
A 24-14 halftime lead, which could have been extended to 38-14, became 24-16 when punter Chris Vidal mishandled a low snap, his punt blocked through the end zone for a safety. After the free kick, Jordan broke free for his third score, then threw a halfback option pass to Gunner Griffith for a two-point conversion to tie the game at 24 at 4:38 left in the third.
Later in the third, junior quarterback Presley Egbers fumbled a snap on third down at the Wasps’ 4, forcing a field goal from Vidal for a 27-24 lead, setting up a fourth quarter filled with what if’s and “almosts” before the Yellow Jackets’ lastminute heroics.
Randolph-Macon struggled on third down, converting on just 4 of 14 attempts, but was 3-for-5 on fourth down while the Wasps missed both fourth down tries — the second setting up the winning drive.
Still smarting over his team’s 25-24 loss to Washington and Lee two weeks prior, Arruza broke down the difference between that day and this one.
“All we had to do was make a couple of plays, and we didn’t,” Arruza said of the loss to the Generals. “But, yeah, the fourth down stop was a huge stop. Great job by our guys.”
The Yellow Jackets return to ODAC play at Guilford on Saturday, needing to win out and have Washington and Lee lose two of their last three
Joel Klein for The Local
Randolph-Macon wide receiver David Wallis leaves Emory & Henry defensive back Zyquis Law hovering over the turf while scoring on an 80-yard touchdown reception from quarterback Brecht Heuchan in the Yellow Jackets’ 34-31 homecoming victory at Day Field Saturday afternoon.
see R-MC, pg. 25
Continued from pg. 24
conference games for a shot at repeating as ODAC champions.
“I was proud of the resolve of our kids,” Arruza noted. “We did a really nice job, in my opinion.”
Rob Witham can be reached at sports@mechlocal.com.
EHC 7 7 10 7 — 31 R-MC 7 17 3 7 — 34
EHC — Jordan 5 run (Jones kick) R-MC — Wallis 80 pass from Heuchan (Vidal kick) R-MC — DeLeon 10 run (Vidal kick) R-MC — DeLeon 6 run (Vidal kick) EHC — Jordan 73 run (Jones kick) R-MC — Vidal FG 21 EHC — Safety (punt blocked in end zone) EHC — Jordan 54 run (Griffith pass from Jordan) R-MC — Vidal FG 26 EHC — English 18 run (Jones kick) R-MC — Hunt 3 pass form Heuchan (Vidal kick)
RUSHING
EHC: Jordan 31-254, English 1-18, Short 4-11, TEAM 1-(minus 24). R-MC: DeLeon 29-202, Hale 7-29, Clarke 5-6, Hodge 1-1, Egbers 1-(minus 2), TEAM 1-(minus 1).
PASSING
EHC: Short 11-23-122-1. R-MC: Heuchan 7-13-259-0, Egbers 4-6-90, TEAM 0-1-0-0.
Joel Klein for The Local
Randolph-Macon wide receiver Zach Bowman (21) is separated from the ball by Emory & Henry defensive back Jaylyn Kreimes. Bowman fi nished with two receptions for 87 yards.
RECEIVING
EHC: Ford 4-35, Jordan 1-28, Cosey 3-27, Short 1-14, Griffith 1-10, Venhorst 1-8. R-MC: Wallis 3-160, Bowman 2-87, Hunt 2-14, Hanratty 1-9, Hodge 1-4, DeLeon 2-(minus 6).
Continued from pg. 22
two ahead of a Mechanicsville receiver. Flora hauled the pass in for a big gain from midfield to inside the red zone. Sahnow ran it to the 2-yard line, and James Poole covered the remaining distance to put Hanover ahead for good with 2:22 left. Sahnow ran in the two-point conversion.
“I just wanted to score. I wanted to win,” Sahnow said. “I had a lot of pressure, I felt, going into this game because we didn’t have Cole. I felt this was a must-win.”
Mechanicsville still had two minutes to make something happen, but a bad snap and a couple of sacks doomed any chance of a comeback. Hanover got the ball back with more than a minute left and was able to run out the clock.
Given that the Mustangs were in a position to win, the final result was disappointing for Mechanicsville players and fans alike.
“All the kids were playing hard. I can’t fault anybody’s
Dave Lawrence/The Local
Mechanicsville quarterback Jordan Callahan (12) leaps over a fallen Hanover player into the end zone for a score in the Hawks’ 35-28 victory over the host Mustangs Friday night.
effort,” said Mechanicsville head coach Ryan Turnage. “It just comes down to execution. That’s been our Achilles’ heel — not being able to execute when we need to in critical situations.”
Dave Lawrence can be reached at dlawrence@mechlocal.com.
Hanover 14 6 7 8 — 35 Mechanicsville 7 7 7 7 — 28
HAN — Poole 2 run (Harrington kick) HAN — Flora 34 pass from Sahnow (Harrington kick) MECH — Harris 2 run (Richman kick) HAN — Sahnow 15 run (kick failed) MECH — Callahan 12 run (Richman kick) HAN — Sahnow 21 run (Harrington kick) MECH — Callahan 2 run (Richman kick) MECH — Messe 11 run (Richman kick) HAN — Poole 2 run (Sahnow run)
RUSHING
HAN: Sahnow 24-140, Poole 12-32, Flora 2-15, Chadwick 1-5. MECH: Callahan 31-159, Messe 8-32, Varner 4-16, Buchanan 2-6, Morris 1-1, Harris 2-(minus 1).
PASSING
AN: Sahnow 8-12-152-0. MECH: Callahan 6-12-60-0.
RECEIVING
HAN: Flora 6-119, Poole 2-33. MECH: Turkvan 3-32, Carner 1-15, Morris 1-9, Harris 1-4.
SPRINGERS
Continued from pg. 23
Johnson said. “We’re going to play four quarters of football. We buckled down and focused and got where we needed to be.”
While the Patriots amassed 215 yards (129 rushing, 86 passing) on 43 offensive plays, the Springers’ defense allowed just two offensive touchdowns.
“We knew we had to stop the heavy run and their regular plays,” said Mario Harris, a 6-1, 270-pound senior defensive tackle. “And we couldn’t give up any mistakes. We’re very disciplined. We took the keys from our coaches that they’ve been teaching us all week. And we had to finish it.”
The Springers had 279 yards (123 by land, 156 by air) on 47 plays.
Martin completed 7 of 16 passes for 92 yards and one touchdown. Jakyre Henley completed 5 of 6 for 64 yards. Quanye Veney accounted for 89 yards on seven catches, several of the acrobatic, I-can’t-believemy-eyes variety.
“We knew they’d come out and give us their best shot, offense and defense,” said Veney of the Patriots. “We knew they’d have the crowd behind them. We knew they’d run tricky plays. We just stayed to the script and did what our coaches told us to do.”
Weldon Bradshaw can be reached at sports@mechlocal. com.
H. Springs 7 13 14 7 — 41 Patrick Henry 6 8 7 7 — 28
HS — Henley 2 run (Rivas kick) PH — Mines 79 kickoff return (kick failed) HS — Veney 6 run (kick failed) PH — Byrd 18 interception return (Mines pass from Allen) HS — Sutton 35 pass from Martin (Rivas kick) PH — Allen 35 run (Crabbe kick) HS — Heath 5 run (Rivas kick) HS — Hodge 12 run (Rivas kick) HS — Fleming 7 run (Rivas kick) PH — Mines 29 pass from Allen (Crabbe kick)
RUSHING
HS — Fleming 6-36, Henley 5-24, Hodge 3-18, Martin 4-13, Whitted 2-8, Robinson 2-9, Veney 1-6, Heath 1-5, Lee 1-4; PH — Allen 22-126, Mines 3-3.
PASSING
HS — Martin 7-16-92-1-1, Henley 5-6-64-0-0; PH — Allen 11-18-86-1-0.
RECEIVING
HS — Veney 7-89, Sutton 1-35, Heath 3-27, Whitted 1-5; PH — Mines 6-71, Ross 3-12, Berry 1-2, Byrd 1-1.
RSN Wants You!
Do you love sports? Do you love telling stories? Do you have the chops to write compelling tales – and to do so on a deadline? If so, Richmond Suburban News wants you! RSN is seeking sports correspondents (stringers in newsroom lingo) to help our staff cover the blizzard of events in the Hanover, Powhatan, and Goochland communities we serve. We feed on a steady diet of high school sports, with some college competition (in Hanover) and the occasional professional event.
The work is mostly nights and weekends. But we pay our correspondents in coin of the realm rather than the oft-promised “exposure.” We prefer people with some journalism training – published clips (even as a student reporter) are best – and need people who can consistently turn around compelling content on time and to the assigned length. For more information, contact sports editor Dave Lawrence at dlawrence@mechlocal.com.
Yellow Jacket women sweep Randolph
Joel Klein for The Local
Above, RandolphMacon’s Macguire Gubba (21) sets the ball in the Yellow Jackets’ 25-13, 2513, 25-13 victory over Randolph Wednesday. Left, Gubba hits the fl oor to save a point in front of Coach Bill Rogers.
Wilkinson to Navy
Dave Lawrence/The Local
Hanover golfer Andrew Wilkinson (seated, center) commits to continue his academic and athletic career at the United States Naval Academy in a signing ceremony at Hanover High School on June 4. With him are (clockwise, from left): his mother, Debbie Wilkinson; teammate Connor Bond, teammate Ethan Boyd; Hanover golf coach Phil Hein; and his father, Tom Wilkinson.
Allen picks UMass
Dave Lawrence/The Local
