SPECIAL EFFORT
BY: DAVE COX, October 24, 2006, Richlands News Press
BRISTOL, VA - It was a “special” night! The undefeated Richlands football team picked up right where it left off two weeks ago, prior to an open date the previous Friday, with a 48-7 thrashing of the Virginia High Bearcats last Friday night at Gene Malcolm Memorial Stadium.
The Blues’ special teams kept Richlands (8-0, 3-0 Southwest District) in short-field situations all evening after the Bearcats held the visitors scoreless in their first offensive series of the non-district contest.
RHS tailback Caleb Jennings rushed for 112 yards on 13 carries to top the 1000-point rushing mark for the season. Jennings posted four touchdowns and tied his school’s single season total points record of 156 set by Brannon Breeding in 1992. Breeding scored his points in 14 games that season, the only year that Richlands has won a state football championship to date. Jennings accomplished the feat in just eight games this season and has two regular season games and an undetermined number of playoff games remaining this year. Jennings also had a non-scoring punt return of 26 yards and a non-scoring kickoff return of 42 yards on special teams play in Friday’s contest. In addition to all of his other feats, he caught two passes for 15 yards.
Ben Addison had a 43 yard non-scoring punt return and caught a 50 yard scoring pass from Tornado quarterback Justin McCracken. Addison finished the night as the Blues’ leading receiver. He grabbed four passes for 71 yards. McCracken tossed a pair of TD passes to raise his season total to 21. He also ran in a touchdown. McCracken passed for 215 yards on 21 attempts and 15 completions. He was intercepted twice.
C. J. Arms caught one touchdown pass for the Blues. Arms yielded 44 passing yards on three catches. Austin Fuller caught four passes for 55 yards and Matt Davis gained 30 yards on a pair of catches. Connor McCall kicked six extra points and Richlands never punted in the game. The RHS offense rushed for 196 yards and finished with 411 yards of total offense. The Tornado defense was outstanding, limiting Virginia High to 77 yards of total offense. Allen Eccleston led the Bearcats on the ground with 60 rushing yards on 16 carries.
The RHS defense was led by Davis, Fuller, Romulo Fajardo, Derek McKnight, Shane Wicks, Brett Clayburne, Kris Null and others. Fuller and Fajardo each intercepted a Bearcat pass. Brett Tatum returned a punt 29 yards.
The win extended the Blues’ regular season victory streak to 27 straight games.
Virginia High (4-4, 2-0 Highlands District) suffered its third straight loss after posting four wins in a row.
“I thought we played really well,” said Richlands head coach Greg Mance. “We did make some mistakes. We tried some things we didn’t spend a lot of time on, but overall we played really well. Our defense was tremendous and our special teams did great.”
Richlands showed a little rust in its opening series before scoring on each of its next three offensive possessions. Jennings capped off a 4-play drive with an 18 yard burst to the end zone with 5:17 left in the opening quarter. The Blues started the drive at the Virginia High 47-yard line. McCall drilled the extra point to put his team ahead to stay at 7-0.
After forcing a Bearcat punt, the visitors again had excellent field position at midfield. It took just four plays from there for the Blues to take advantage of that favorable position to light up the scoreboard again. This time McCracken took the air route. He popped a nice 8-yard pass to Arms, who crossed the goal line with 1:17 remaining in the first period. The extra point kick failed to make it across, but the Blues were out front 13-0.
The special teams factor came into play big time starting early in the second frame. Addison returned a Bearcat punt from all the way from his own 37 to the VHS 20. Jennings took care of those yards in short order. The fast, crafty tailback ran through, around and over the defense to the house in just one touch to put his team on the scoreboard again. McCall added the PAT to make it 20-0 with 11:26 left until halftime.
The first of three Tornado turnovers in the game came back to haunt the Blues and give Virginia High its only touchdown of the game. Brent Davenport intercepted McCracken and returned the football to the RHS 20 before McCracken could bring him down. Bearcat quarterback Zac Messer kept the ball on a 9-yard play to the 11-yard line and Allen Eccleston, the Highlands leading rusher, bolted to the end zone on the next play. Caleb Hunt put the extra point kick through to cut the Blues’ edge to 20-7 with 7:20 left in the second stanza.
It didn’t take long for the visitors to redeem themselves, thanks to a 29 yard kickoff return by Tatum. Richlands pieced together an 8-play, 41-yard drive with McCracken negotiating the final seven yards on a quarterback keeper play. McCall booted the extra point to set the score at 27-7 with 3:49 left in the first half.
Special teams again played a big part in the second half for RHS and it didn’t take long! Jennings corralled the third quarter opening kickoff and raced 42 yards to the Bearcat 40-yard line. An 8-yard pass to Jennings and a 22-yard bomb to Davis set the visitors up at the VHS 6. Jennings scored his third TD of the night from there and McCall tacked on a point to give the Tornado a comfortable 34-7 advantage with 10:51 remaining in the third chapter.
Romulo Fajardo set up the following Blues’ tally with an interception at the RHS 35. McCracken hooked up long distance with a 50 yard scoring pass to Addison in traffic with 5:51 left in the third quarter. McCall drilled the PAT to give his team a 41-7 lead.
The final RHS score was Jennings’ fourth and final one of the night. His run covered 15 yards and came with 3:07 left in the third period. McCall added his sixth extra point kick to set the final score at 48-7.
Jennings returned for just one curtain call, a 26-yard punt return early in a scoreless fourth quarter. Richlands used mostly reserve players in the final frame.
Richlands will return home next Friday to host the Carroll County Cavaliers in an important SWD contest that could decide the regular season conference champion.
Virginia High travels to Bluefield to battle the Graham G-Men.
Email: berry1974@adelphia.net
