There will be no easy football games in the Three Rivers District this year. After losing to a strong Floyd County team last week, the James River Knights will head to Hillsville to take on 4-1 Carroll County this Friday.
“Our district is always strong,” said River coach Tim Jennings. “We just have to be consistent. If we play consistent, we can beat anyone in our district.”
River hosted Floyd for Homecoming last week, and the game was moved up to Thursday with inclement weather predicted. The Buffaloes took a 46-12 win in the Three Rivers opener for both teams.
“They’re a senior-laden team, I think they have 19 seniors,” said Jennings. “We played better. The score doesn’t indicate it, but it was the best we’ve played since the Rockbridge scrimmage.”
River fell behind early. They were moving the ball on their first possession but a bad snap killed the drive and set the Buffaloes up with decent field position and Floyd went on to score the first 26 points of the game.
The Knights got some hope when they scored just before halftime. A long pass play to Josiah Merchant set up a Pierce Woodyard to Ryder Ward five-yard TD hookup. The extra point was blocked but River went into the locker room on a high note.
“We felt good at the half,” said Jennings. “We were in the game.”
Floyd struck first after intermission on a long run and it was 32-6. River didn’t score again until 7:33 remained in the game when Sam Wilson ran in from the four. That was set up by a long punt return by Gavin Binns.
Binns finished with 217 all-purpose yards. He had 49 yards rushing, 12 yards receiving and 156 return yards.
Woodyard completed seven of 16 passes for 131 yards. His favorite target was Merchant, who had three receptions for 79 yards.
Photos by Leigh Downey
The loss dropped River to 1-4 at the midway point of the season. Jennings is hoping to eliminate the big plays and pick up a district win this Friday in Hillsville.
“Big plays and turnovers killed us,” he said. “We started with excellent field position several times due to our returns, but were not very good on first down. Still, we saw a lot of growth and have several things to build off of moving forward.”
