There’s a big Thursday night football game this week, and in Springwood it isn’t the Buccaneers and the Eagles. It’s the third-ranked James River Knights at Floyd County.
The Knights will play at Floyd on Thursday at 6 p.m. as they put their three-game winning streak on the line. River’s 29-0 shutout of Alleghany last Friday was the third win in a row for the Knights and put them in third place in Region 2C in the first release of the Virginia High School League rankings on Monday. The next nine days will determine if they rise or fall, as River will play three games during that span.
The game at Floyd on Thursday was moved up a day so River could squeeze Glenvar into the schedule next Monday, a game that was postponed due to COVID concerns in Springwood. By playing Floyd Thursday the Knights will have three off days before hosting Glenvar on Monday, then three more days to prepare for Giles on Friday, October 22.
It will be an interesting nine days. Floyd is 4-2 and one spot behind River in the standings in fourth place in Region 2C. Glenvar, currently 5-1 with a game at Allegany this Friday, is top-ranked in the region after destroying Floyd last week, 54-0. Then, next Friday, River will host 4-1 Giles, the second ranked team in Region 1C. It’s a nine-game blitz that could make or break the Knights.
“We’d like to win all three, but if we can get two of three we’ll be in great shape,” said River coach Tim Jennings. “We’re playing three good teams.”
How Floyd reacts to getting humiliated by Glenvar remains to be seen. The Buffaloes could either fold the tent or get mad, and with longtime coach Winfred Beale at the helm the latter is most likely.
Monday’s game with Glenvar, in Springwood with a 6 p.m. start, is the annual battle for the Virginia Media Rocking Chair. Virginia Media includes The Fincastle Herald and Salem Times-Register newspapers, covering both participants, and it’s been an annual right since Glenvar left the Pioneer District for the Three Rivers in 1996. The two teams had been big rivals in the Pioneer and it added a little incentive to the game, even though the two teams were no longer district rivals.
Well, it’s 25 years later and the two teams are district rivals again, as James River has since joined Glenvar in the tough Three Rivers. Now the chair has even more meaning, as the game counts in the district record and is often a key source for points in the Virginia High School League playoff system.
The Knights haven’t had the chair since 2013, when they beat Glenvar 27-20. The Highlanders have an overall edge of 17-7 in the 24 previous years the rocker has been on the line. There have been several chairs since the initial rocker, and Glenvar bought a very sturdy chair and put a new paint scheme on it prior to the 2019 season, with all the scores from the past 24 years painted on the chair. It’s painted red, black, green and gold to represent both schools.
Glenvar won the rivalry game by a big score in 2019, 56-0. The game was not played during the 2020 season, as all VHSL games were cancelled in the fall due to the pandemic. The two were scheduled to play in the spring makeup season. However, Roanoke County announced that its schools would only play intra-county games during the six-game spring season. That knocked River off the Glenvar schedule, and by the time Roanoke County rescinded that edict James River had already rescheduled that date.
“Right now we’re not even talking about that rocking chair,” said Jennings. “All our attention is on Floyd.”
While Floyd was shut out last week at Glenvar, River was shutting out Alleghany in Low Moor. The Knights took a 15-0 lead into the half, then put 14 more on the board in the third quarter while holding Alleghany to 25 total yards on 42 plays. The Mountaineers had 49 yards passing but that was offset by a minus 24-yard rushing total.
“Getting a shutout is something that’s really hard to do,” said Jennings. “I don’t think people realize how difficult it is.”
The game was the first for the Knights in three weeks after having been postponed two weeks in a row.
“We played well at times, but other times it looked like we hadn’t played in three weeks,” said Jennings. “It was just good to be out there.”
Logan Campbell led the defense with nine total tackles, including four solos, and he also had two tackles for losses, a sack and two pass breakups. Jake Benson, Dakota Gilliam, Colin Cook and Andrew Wheeler had six tackles each.
Benson, Brian Moran and Tanner Dillow all had interceptions for the Knights. Ben Bailey had two pass breakups and Conner Church had a sack.
Bailey had a big night on offense. He scored River’s first TD on a 19-yard run, then caught a 27-yard touchdown pass from Zeal Hammons in the second quarter. In between the Knights earned a two-point safety by tackling the Alleghany back in the end zone, and that made for the 15-0 halftime lead.
In the third quarter the Knights put it away. First, Conner Church ran for a 55-yard TD, then Baily returned a punt 35 yards to set up a five-yard run by Cook, and James Vaught kicked his third successful extra point in four tries.
Church led River with 147 yards rushing on 16 carries. Hammons was nine for 17 passing for 111 yards. Dillow caught three for 31 yards, Bailey caught two for 39 and Church had a 22-yard reception, giving him 169 yards of total offense for the night.
The win was the Three Rivers District opener for the Knights, who will finish the regular season with all district opponents except for Giles, who left the Three Rivers for the Mountain Empire beginning this season.
