After going 1-5 in the spring season and losing the fall opener to Buffalo Gap, most pundits weren’t expecting James River to beat Parry McCluer last Friday. However, most pundits were wrong.
The Knights scored in every period to take a 23-8 win last Friday in Springwood and ruin a homecoming for Blues coach Jack Baker, who was a standout player for James River during his high school days. River coach Tim Jennings, who played for Parry McCluer in high school, couldn’t have been happier.
“It was a big win,” said Jennings. “It’s always a big game when we play Parry McCluer. We had the bye last week and that allowed us to get healthy. I thought we played a lot more physical than we did in our first game. They were bigger, but we had a lot of hats to the ball.”
River jumped to an early lead when Ben Bailey scored on a 39-yard pass from Zeal Hammons and James Voight’s kick made it 7-0 with 7:44 left in the first quarter. The Blues answered on an eight-yard TD run by John Snider midway through the second quarter and a two-point conversion gave Parry McCluer an 8-7 lead. However, it was short lived as Bailey found the end zone again just 20 seconds later when he ran 74 yards for a score on a jet sweep. Voight’s kick put River up 14-8 at the half and the Knights never trailed again.
Voight’s 27-yard field goal with 7:08 remaining in the third period made it a two-possession game as River went up by nine, 17-8. The defense took care of the rest, and Hammons officially put it away with a six-yard TD run with just under six minutes remaining.
On offense, Bailey rushed four times for 82 yards and caught three passes for 62 for 144 yards of total offense and two scores. Conner Church had 44 yards rushing on 10 attempts and Hammons was seven for 13 passing for 164 yards and a score. Tanner Dillow had two catches for 59 yards and Levi Rock and Toliver had one reception each. Brian Moran had a 26-yard punt return.
With the win the Knights evened their record at 1-1 and they’ll go on the road for the first time this Friday when they make the trip to Covington. The Cougars are off to a 2-1 start with wins over Bath County and Alleghany and a loss to Staunton High.
“They’re athletic, as they always are,” said Jennings. “They want to run the ball and they have a couple good skill guys, but if we play like we did last Friday we’ll be fine. That was a huge confidence booster for us.”
