Hanover 37, J.R. Tucker 7 Dean Cheatham (142 yards rushing, two touchdowns) and Sam Rogers (115 yards rushing, 69 passing, 2 TDs) led Hanover to 358 yards of offense in the Hawks’ romp past the Tigers. Rogers gained all of his rushing yards in the second quarter, and 93 of Cheatham’s total were earned in the same frame for the Hawks (2-0). The Tigers (0-2) were limited to 63 yards rushing, but Michael Mey had four catches for 124 yards and a TD. Starting quarterback Curtis Coleman passed for 95 yards for Tucker, and Marcus Moore added five completions for 92 yards and a score. Hanover................... 0 21 2 14 — 37 J.R. Tucker............... 0 0 0 7 — 7 H —Cheatham 9 run (Palmen kick) H —Rogers 52 run (Palmen kick) H —Cheatham 20 run (Palmen kick) H — Safety, Forey tackled Carr in end zone H —Rogers 2 run (Palmen kick) H — Brooks 87 interception return (Palmen kick) JR —Mey 41 from Moore (Jones kick)
Faulkners’ five TDs key Yellow Jacket win By Jim Ridolphi For The Mechanicsville Local Sometimes coaches are hard to figure. Following his team’s 4214 thumping of visiting Shenandoah, Randolph-Macon head football coach Pedro Azurra wasn’t exactly thrilled with his team’s performance. “I thought it was really sloppy,” he said after the win, the Jackets third in a row in this young season. “I thought our execution was inconsistent and we had way too many penalties at key times, and that’s not what I expect from our team.” Likewise, Saturday’s loss also left Shenandoah coach Paul Barnes scratching his head as his Hornets departed Ashland for the long trip home. “We just didn’t play well today, in any aspect of the game,” the veteran coach said. “I thought we’d come out and play better than we did, but we just didn’t play Hornet football today.” The visiting Hornets barely had time to catch their breath as the Yellow Jackets took the opening kickoff and marched 85 yards in 10 plays to take a
Lee-Davis 31, Hopewell 14 Lee-Davis held a 17-14 lead at halftime, but in the second half the Confederates (1-1) wore the clock down and ran away with the win over Hopewell (02). Lee-Davis rushed 19 times for 183 yards in the second half after rushing 12 times for 14 Continued from pg. 42 b yards in the first half. Lee-Davis had 17-play drive bit differently with Cody to prethat took up the entire third pare him for that.” quarter. Israel Vaughan rushed Other top performers include 15 times for 68 yards for Leesenior Robbie Longest, who Davis. worked really hard for four years Lee-Davis.................... 6 11 7 7—31 to be a strong and exceptional Hopewell .....................0 14 0 0—14 runner. In the younger ranks LD — Scott 28 pass from Vaughan is sophomore Joey Brissette and (run failed) freshman Paul Adam, who has H —Bowen 40 run (Duncan kick) the potential to rival Snyder’s LD — Moody 45 interception return progression. According to (Stone run) Matthews, Adam is “learning the H — Smith 36 pass from Reeves ropes, and he’s young. He needs (Duncan kick) to get stronger to be able to chalLD —FG Castelvecchi 25 lenge up front. He’s a heck of LD —Vaughan 1 run (Castelvecchi a competitor; needs experience kick) but is a good racer,” Matthews LD —Wyatt 10 run (Castelvecchi said. kick) PATRICK HENRY
RUNNERS
Jim Ridolphi/For The Local
R-MC’s Earl Peoples gathers in one of his 17 completions in the Yellow Jackets 42-14 romp over Shenandoah.
lead that was never threatened. R-MC’s Thaddeus Scruggs put the cap on the five-minute drive with a 9-yard touchdown run. “It’s good to set a tempo at the beginning,” Scruggs said. “We came out fast and let them know we meant business.” Following a Hornet threeand-out, the Jackets added another score when senior quarterback Austin Faulkner found Dan Crouch in the end zone for a 17- yard scoring connection. It was the first of five TD
passes for the senior, who said the performance still left room for improvement. “We still have to go back and hammer out some things for next week and tomorrow we’ll come in and fix some things we didn’t do well today. We’ll take the win but we can do better.” Zack Midulla gathered in a three-yard completion to up the Jackets lead to 21-0, seconds into the second period. Crouch caught a third touchdown pass shortly before the half for a 28-0 advantage.
Patriots head coach Jeremy Dobrinski is excited to see improvement across the board with his teams this year. The girls, though very young, are showing talent in sophomores Logan Harrington, Melina Richardson and Tyler Kittel, as well as junior Allison Nichols. “They’ve been pushing in our top four and kind of swapping positions at every meet,” Dobrinski said. Up and comers include sophomore Tyler Kittel, who ran impressively at the Sports Equestrian. “I look to see some good things from her as the season goes on,” Dobrinski said. “Her times are dropping rapidly.” For the boys, senior Julian
Menk leads the team in best times. “I look to see good things from him, being one of the better kids in the Colonial District as well as placing in the top 15 or so in the Central Region,” Dobrinski said. Other bright spots for the Patriots are sophomore Tyler McReynolds, and senior David Halstead. With only three seniors and the rest underclassmen, the Patriots look forward to seeing their strength develop further in the coming seasons. Sophomores Nathan Nayda and Wyatt Campbell are running very well though both are nursing injuries right now. “I look to see when they get healthy to be very helpful for our team,” Dobrinski said.
Barnes said it was a forgettable first half for the Hornets. “We were out of sync offensively and defensively and made some special team mistakes, and you can’t do that against a team like Randolph-Macon.” The Hornets took the second half kickoff and mounted an 11-play, 65-yard scoring drive, capped by a one-yard plunge by Keone Kyle. The defense stopped the Jackets on the ensuing series, but the Hornets couldn’t sustain a third period drive and the quarter ended with the Jackets up 28-7. “I thought we played better in the second half, but didn’t take advantage of some opportunities and just didn’t execute well enough to come back,” Barnes said. Faulkner continued his aerial assault in the final period, finding Earl Peoples in the end zone for 14-yard score. Peoples hit pay dirt again on the ensuing drive with a four-yard completion. Peoples was 17-for-170 yards; many of them drive sustaining catches. “We were trying to move the chains and not worry about scoring,” he said. Shenandoah’s coach said the Jackets presented a variety of problems for his team. “You have to give RandolphMacon credit,” Barnes said. “They’re a good football team, and we didn’t have one of our better performances today.” The Jacket defense held Hornets wide receiver Rico Wallace to three catches for 27 yards while running back Keone Kyle totaled only 37 yards on 13 carries. “I thought our defense did some things well out there today, and overall, they played better than last week,” Azurra said. “I don’t think they (Sheandoah) had many rushing yards, and I’m happy about that.” On Monday the Yellow Jackets moved into the No. 25
The Mechanicsville Local
slot in this week’s D3 Football poll and they host Frostburg State at 1 p.m., but Azurra said his team still has a long way to go to reach preseason goals. “To be honest, I thought we took a step backwards today,” he said. “We have extremely high standards for our program and I think we should have played better,” he added. The 3-0 start could make Azurra’s job more difficult. “The biggest challenge will be keeping them focused and make sure we continue to get better, because we’re not good enough now to compete with the best teams in our conference.” Arruza had some good advice for his team heading into this week. “Our guys better come ready to practice next week and with a sense of urgency because if we play like that, we won’t win a game,” he said. Shenandoah 0 0 7 7- 14 Randolph Macon 14 14 0 14- 42 R-MC - Thaddeus Scruggs 9 yd run (Josh Storm kick) 10 plays, 85 yards, TOP 5:06, SU 0 - R-MC 7 R-MC - Dan Crouch 17 yd pass from Austin Faulkner (Josh Storm kick) 9 plays, 58 yards, TOP 4:30, SU 0 - R-MC 14 R-MC - Zack Midulla 3 yd pass from Austin Faulkner (Josh Storm kick) 12 plays, 78 yards, TOP 6:32, SU 0 - R-MC 21 R-MC - Dan Crouch 1 yd pass from Austin Faulkner (Josh Storm kick) 14 plays, 62 yards, TOP 6:29, SU 0 - R-MC 28 SU - Kyle, Keone 1 yd run (LLOYD, Andrew kick) 11 plays, 65 yards, TOP 3:51, SU 7 - R-MC 28 R-MC - Earl Peoples 14 yd pass from Austin Faulkner (Josh Storm kick) 7 plays, 53 yards, TOP 3:26, SU 7 - R-MC 35 R-MC - Earl Peoples 4 yd pass from Austin Faulkner (Josh Storm kick) 11 plays, 64 yards, TOP 6:58, SU 7 - R-MC 42 SU - Calloway, Brian 22 yd pass from Wright, Daniel (Lloyd, Andrew kick)
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