BY: DAVE COX, November 28, 2006, Richlands News Press RICHLANDS: Richlands got off to a rough start at Ernie Hicks Stadium last Friday night against the visiting Graham G-Men, but the Blues overcame five first half turnovers to take a 31-14 victory and claim its third straight Region IV, Division 3 football championship. Richlands (12-0) advances to the state Group AA, Division 3 semifinals this Saturday against Hidden Valley, a 19-0 winner Friday night over Christiansburg. Hidden Valley plays at Cave Spring Middle School in Roanoke, where that game will most likely be held, unless the location is changed. “To play as bad as we did and come out with a win, we’re tickled to death,” said Richlands head coach Greg Mance. “This just shows we have a complete football team. The offense kind of sputtered, but defense and special teams picked us up.” It was a see-saw battle between RHS and Graham (7-5) in a first half Friday that was knotted up at 14-14 at halftime before the Tornado defense took control in the second half, holding the G-Men to minus yardage in the final two frames. Meanwhile, the Blues’ offense exploded for 17 unanswered second half points for the eventual victory. The Tornado suffered just one second half turnover. Outstanding performances by defensive players like Brett Clayburne (8 1/2 tackles), Brett Tatum (four tackles and two sacks, forced fumble and tipped pass that resulted in an interception), Matt Davis (five tackles), Shane Wicks (five tackles), Derek McKnight (4 1/2 tackles) and Zach Pruett (3 1/2 tackles) kept the Graham offense bottled up the entire contest. The G-Men did not get into Richlands territory the entire second half and ran just six plays inside Blues’ country the first half of the game. Graham took advantage of the second early Richlands turnover for its first score of the game. A high snap to Tornado quarterback Justin McCracken sailed over his head and into the end zone where Graham’s Tyler Barreras recovered the football for the G-Men’s first tally with 7:24 left in the initial period. The extra point kick failed. Richlands (12-0) regained its composure offensively and McCracken ran in a five-yard score in the second period to tie the game at 6-6 with 9:58 remaining until halftime. Connor McCall added the extra point kick to give the Blues’ their first lead of the game at 7-6. Graham came right back after a pass interception by Matt Yost handed RHS its fourth turnover of the night. Steven Brown raced 32 yards on the next play to give Graham its initial first down of the game as well as its second score. A conversion pass from Graham quarterback Will Cole to Yost raised the G-Men advantage to 14-7 with 5:31 left in the second quarter. The Blues scored on a beautiful 70-yard pass play from McCracken to C. J. Arms, who finished with 159 yards receiving on the night. McCall added the extra point to tie the game at 14-14 with just 1:52 left in the first half. Arms’ total was the second highest receiving yards in a single game in RHS history. Travis Tatum set the record in 2003 in a game against Abingdon. Arms now has 634 receiving yards on the season, second to Austin Fuller with 888, and moves into third place all-time behind Fuller and Rob Stanton (737 yards). Caleb Jennings, who finished with 140 yards rushing on 19 carries, put his team ahead to stay in the third quarter on a 5-yard touchdown run with 3:27 remaining in the period. McCall added the extra point kick and later kicked a 29-yard field goal with 8:41 left in the third chapter. That kick put the Tornado 10 points ahead at 24-14. D. J. Simmons went 15 yards with a Graham fumble for the final Richlands score of the game, the last one that counted, anyway. McCall added the extra point for a 31-14 Blues’ lead with 1:41 left in the game. Clayburne went to the house with a 35-yard interception late in the game but the play was nullified by a penalty. “We needed this,” said Mance. “We needed four quarters. From here on out, you’re going to go four quarters with people putting pressure on you the entire game so this was great for us.” Richlands finished with 124 yards rushing in the contest. McCracken passed for 191 yards on 19 attempts and 11 completions. He suffered one interception. The Richlands defense held Graham to just 49 yards of total offense and only three first downs in the contest. “The old saying that offense wins games and defense wins championships is really true,” said Mance. “When you get this late in the year, everyone usually plays good defense and it’s hard to score because everyone’s so good defensively. We turned the ball over six times and put ourselves behind the 8-ball, but our defense bailed us out! The state Group AA, Division 3 game between Richlands and Hidden Valley is Saturday in Roanoke with kickoff set for 2:00 p.m.
