Point After: Valley Highlights
Blacksburg's Trey Gresh Calls The Signals
Photo by David Grimes
Blacksburg head coach David Crist gets the play from his assistants in the booth.
Photo by David Grimes
Week two of the 2008 football season is now in the books and everyone in the New River and Roanoke Valleys have finally taken to field, except for Auburn and Craig County, who will open their season this Friday night. So far, there have been a few surprises and some shockers. Here's a look at some of the highlights from this past Friday night.
First, we start off in Elliston, home of the Eastern Montgomery Mustangs. Both East Mont and Narrows opened their season this past Friday night, and once again it was a thriller. Friday night's game went into four overtimes before this one was finally decided. A Corey Lowe touchdown in the fourth OT gave Narrows the exciting 26-20 win. In last year's contest at Narrows, the two teams combined for 62 points, as the Mustangs won 39-23.
And speaking of overtime games, just last year, also in the first game of the season, Blacksburg and Giles played a VHSL record-tying six overtimes before the Spartans won a Cody Journell field goal, 46-43.
Speaking of Blacksburg and Giles, these two teams also opened up their season this past Friday night in front of a couple thousand fans at the old Bill Brown Stadium. You could call this game a mild shocker, as the Bruins defeated the Spartans 23-8. Friday night's game was the debut of Giles' new head coach Jeff Williams, who replaced Steve Ragsdale, after he retired during the spring. The Blacksburg offense, behind senior quarterback Trey Gresh, who just happened to be one of the three returning starters from last year's squad, took advantage of four Spartan fumbles. The Blacksburg defense also had an outstanding game, as they force six fumbles, in which the Spartans lost four of them. In addition, the Bruin defense did something few other teams have been able to do and that was.... stop the single-wing offense that Giles is so famous for.
While we are down in the New River Valley, lets look at a couple of other teams that kicked off its season this past Friday night.
The Radford Bobcats took to the road, as they traveled to Galax. No, the Bobcats weren't heading to the famous Fiddler Convention, but they did play a number on their hosts, in the tune of a 37-16 victory. Radford's Dontae Carter threw two touchdown passes and ran for another to make the highlight reel.
Now, we're start heading back north and make a stop in Floyd, a place known for its music on Friday nights. Floyd County is known for two things, it's Friday night music at Floyd's Store and football. This past Friday night, the Buffaloes football team took center stage, as quarterback Luke Harris was the star of the evening. All this young man did was run for three touchdowns and pass for two more, as Floyd won 47-0. Not bad for an opening night act.
Our next stop is in Salem, home of the Spartans. Salem opened up its season in fine style with a 42-20 victory against Lord Botetourt. The Cavaliers did make this one a little more respectable, especially after being whipped 44-9 last year. The win allowed Salem to stretch its regular-season winning streak to 35 games. Quarterback Derrick Hickman ran for 124 yards and completed 2-of-4 passes for 32 yards. His teammate, Kirk Coles ran for 149 yards. Quarterback Emory Straub, who was 6-for-12 for 130 yards and Josh Colombine, who ran for 118 yards, led Lord Botetourt.
One of the better games in the Roanoke Valley took place over in Vinton, as William Byrd and Hidden Valley squared off. It was a back-and-forth affair, before Josh Conner scored the tying touchdown on an 11-yard run with 6:45 left in the game and John Minnich hit the winning PAT to make the final 21-20. Derrick Palmer also had a big night for the Terriers, as he rushed for 185 yards. David Palmer made the highlight reel for Hidden Valley with his 245 yards of rushing on 32 attempts.
Some other games to make the highlight reel included Bassett's 46-7 win over Patrick Henry. In that game, Bassett's Boo Wood ran for 230 yards and two touchdowns and threw for another 138 yards and two more touchdowns.
Another quarterback to have a great night was Wm. Fleming's Derek Brown. Brown passed for 187 yards and ran for another 133 yards to lead the Colonels to a 37-7 win against Northside.
Cave Spring, after starting last season with a 1-1 mark, is a perfect 2-0 heading into week three after Friday's 28-6 win against Staunton River, a team they beat last year 7-6.
James River also picked up its first win of the season with a 19-12 win over Roanoke Catholic. In this one, quarterback Jordan Talbott had 113 yards on a 14-for-20 night.
The season is still early and I'm sure week three will be just as exciting as the two previous.
