James River will be home to Buffalo Gap; Lord Botetourt goes to E.C. Glass
It’s finally here. The fall football season will open this Friday and both Botetourt County teams are chomping at the bit.
James River will host Buffalo Gap on Friday at 7 p.m. in Springwood. The Bison are a Class 2 team and members of the Shenandoah District. They’re new to the River schedule after going 3-4 in the abbreviated spring season.
“Gap is a pretty good team,” said River coach Tim Jennings. “They’re physical, but we match up well with their size. We have a good game plan and if we can just do our job and eliminate mistakes we’ll be okay.”
The Knights ended the preseason with a 23-0 win over Auburn in a benefit game in Springwood last Friday.
“We need to play team football and eliminate costly mistakes,” said Jennings. “We shot ourselves in the foot at times Friday night because of penalties and mental mistakes, all unforced errors. That cost us over 160 yards, none of which we can live with given our lack of depth.”
Lord Botetourt hosted a three-team scrimmage with Jefferson Forest and Pulaski County last Friday to tune up for their opener with E.C. Glass in Lynchburg this Friday.
“I thought it went well,” said Cavalier coach Jamie Harless. “We had some penalties but they were effort penalties. It was a typical scrimmage – we played well at times and we played sloppy at times.”
“Glass is young on the line of scrimmage but they’re athletic and they have good size,” said Harless. “They have a really good quarterback (George White) and a good utility player (Markevus Graves) who they put at tailback or wingback. On defense they run to the ball and they’re very aggressive.”
The Hilltoppers will be excited to get on the field after a frustrating spring season. They managed to play only four games due to the coronavirus pandemic, going 1-3. They beat Liberty but lost to Jefferson Forest, Amherst County and Heritage.
Look for a preview of the Lord Botetourt and James River teams in a special section included in this week’s edition of The Fincastle Herald.
