Everything went well for James River’s Homecoming last weekend except for the football game. Visiting Covington put a damper on the festivities Friday by defeating the host Knights, 21-0, in Springwood.
“We just didn’t play well,” said River coach Tim Jennings. “We worked on stuff all week and then we didn’t do it Friday night. Our penalties came at bad times and we had too many missed tackles. Mistakes and missed tackles killed us.”
You’d never guess the score by the statistics. River outgained the Cougars, 187 yards to 184, and had four fewer penalties for 30 fewer yards. However, timing is everything and the Knights picked some bad spots to commit penalties and give up yards.
Covington had a 14-0 lead by the half, but River was right in the game at that point. In the third quarter the Knights fumbled deep in their territory and Covington’s Zachary Ratliff picked it up and ran 21 yards for a killer score.
“We just didn’t do enough right to win the game,” said Jennings. “Overall, I thought we outplayed them but we made mistakes at crucial times.”
Dyllan McAllister returned from an injury to play quarterback Friday and he completed eight passes for 21 yards and rushed 14 times for 29 yards. Addison McCaleb had three catches for 66 yards and Kevin Theimer had two for 40.
Defensively, Theimer led with 11 tackles, including two for losses, and he also had an interception. McCaleb had 10 tackles and Logan Campbell had seven. Nathan Farris, Levi Walker, and Jack Voight had 6 tackles each.
With the loss the Knights are now 2-2 and hope to get back over .500 on Friday when Glenvar comes to town.