The weather was much better for James River’s second game of the football season but so was the opponent. A very talented Radford team took a 48-6 win over the Knights in Springwood last Friday.
River had opened the season a week prior with a shutout of Alleghany in the snow. Last Friday it was cold but clear, but the visiting Bobcats brought the storm in the way of 305 yards of total offense to just 50 yards for River. Radford led 33-0 at the half and 46-0 after three quarters before the Knights scored on a one yard run by sophomore Colin Cook with the clock running continuously.
“They’re a very good football team,” said River coach Tim Jennings of the Bobcats. “Except for a couple tackles they have all their weapons back, and they got the (running back P.J.) Prioleau kid back from an injury. The score really could have been worse.”
Prioleau carried just six times but made good use of his opportunities by rushing for 65 yards and touchdown runs of two, 28 and 14 yards. Cook led River with 26 yards on four carries and Hunter Forbes, still getting back into football mode after winning a state wrestling championship, carried three times for eight.
Freshman Zeal Hammons completed four of 16 passes for 33 yards, two to Tanner Dillow and one each to Addison McCaleb and Adam Bridges. River had just four first downs.
“Hunter is the only running back we have with varsity experience,” said Jennings. “We rotate three guys at wide receiver and none of them had varsity experience. We’re very young all around, but the kids played hard. It doesn’t show in the score, but we played well early in the game. It was 18-0 for a long time.”
Defensively, Aaron Bridges led River with nine total tackles, including seven solos. Logan Campbell, George Toliver and McCaleb had five tackles each and Adam Bridges and Nathan Farris had five each. Toliver had two tackles for losses and a fumble recovery as well.
“They look good,” said Jennings. “They have a big quarterback, 6’3” and about 215 pounds, and everything runs through him. They have a good running back and they use a lot of formations. They probably run it 80 percent of the time and they do it well.”