The Radford Bobcats are the top-ranked football team in the Virginia High School League Region 2C standings, and nothing the James River boys saw last Friday made them question that. Host Radford scored 28 first quarter points and defeated the Knights, 42-13, in a Three Rivers District game.
“They were good and they were a lot bigger than us, but we didn’t help ourselves any,” said River coach Tim Jennings. “Poor tackling and big plays hurt us. We didn’t decide to play until we were down by 35 points.”
The Knights fumbled their second snap from scrimmage, leading to a Radford score. Then the Bobcats picked off a pass and scored on the next play and the rout was on. Radford led 42-6 at the half and as the clock ran continuously after intermission.
“We were able to move the ball at times,” said Jennings. “We had a hard time stopping them. They converted twice on third and long and we can’t let that happen.”
The yardage was closer than the score, as Radford had 312 total yards and the Knights finished with 203, including 158 yards passing. River had a hard time running the ball against Radford’s big line, gaining just 45 yards on 28 attempts for an average of less than two yards per carry. Craig Bowyer had 12 rushes for 30 yards.
Dyllan McAllister was five for nine passing, with Kevin Theimer leading the receivers with four catches for 72 yards. Addison McCaleb had two receptions and both Theimer and McCaleb caught touchdown passes for River’s two scores.
Theimer led the defense with seven solo tackles and seven assists for 14 total tackles. McCaleb had 10 total tackles, Nathan Farris had nine and Austin Miller had eight.
With the loss River fell to 3-4 on the season. Three other teams are also 3-4 in the Region 2C standings but the Knights have the lowest point total due to strength of schedule and are in the 11th spot with only eight making the playoffs. Fort Chiswell, Patrick County and Nelson County are also 3-4 but are in eight, ninth and 10th place in the standings.
