Photos by Brian Hoffman
The James River football team will take this Friday off after dropping a 31-7 game at Glenvar last Friday. The host Highlanders got to keep the Virginia Media Rocking Chair for the 12th straight year with the win.
“They have a good team, and we just didn’t play well enough against them,” said River coach Jack Baker. “We had little spurts of offense, but for the most part we just didn’t get it done.”
The Highlanders took a lead they would not relinquish just 54 seconds into the game on a 24-yard TD run. Glenvar led 14-0 after the first quarter, and scored with 26 seconds left in the half to go up 21-0 at intermission. It was 31-0 before Merit Hammons ruined Glenvar’s shutout with a two-yard touchdown run with four and a half minutes remaining in the game.
Statistically, both teams had 146 yards rushing but Glenvar accomplished it on 28 attempts and James River needed 50. The big difference was passing as Glenvar had 121 yards through the air and River had just 11. Bentley Painter had 59 yards rushing to lead the Knights. Hammons had 43 yards and Sam Wilson had 40.
On defense, Eli Baldwin led the Knights with 11 tackles and Wilson had 10, including a tackle for a loss. Cade Cook had an interception.
With the win the Highlanders get to keep the Virginia Media Rocking Chair, a symbol of this long-time rivalry, for the 12th straight season. The Highlanders improved to 4-3 while River dropped to 3-4.
The Knights are off this Friday, returning October 23 at Floyd County. Baker held practices Monday through Wednesday but gave the team off the end of this week as some of the players are going on a school trip.
“We’ll work on Floyd and try to get some players healthy,” said Baker of his plans for the bye week. “We’re down two or three key players, but that’s life when you have a 21- or 22-man roster.”
