District title hop
efuls Grafton and Warhill earned their first district victories last Friday while York, Lafayette and Smithfield each improved to 3-0.
After three weeks of football – two weeks of Bay Rivers play – we’re beginning to get an idea of who’s who in the district, but we’ll have a much clearer gauge on things after this Friday’s slate, highlighted by the Lafayette-Smithfield showdown of unbeaten squads.
York also takes on a Jamestown (1-2) team that has been competitive in all three of its games this season and can come as close as anyone to matching the Falcons’ size on both sides of the line.
Elsewhere, Tabb hopes to upset Poquoson for the second-straight season while Grafton plays at Bruton and Warhill visits New Kent.
But first, a look at last a few storylines from Friday…
[stextbox id=”news-sidebar” caption=”Bay Rivers Football Scoreboard- Week 2″ float=”true” align=”right” width=”250″ color=”000000″ bgcolor=”7b8482″]York 14 Tabb 7
Grafton 49 New Kent 17
Smithfield 28 Bruton 18
Lafayette 45 Bruton 13
Warhill 32 Poquoson 14[/stextbox]
Dedmond Stars in Warhill’s Win over Poquoson
Warhill knocked off Poquoson for the second season in a row last Friday, 32-14, and just like last year, Devonte Dedmond was a big reason why.
The junior standout, who didn’t record a single carry in the Lions’ district opener against York two weeks ago while nursing a sore ankle, rushed 20 times – mostly out of the Wildcat – for 211 yards and three touchdowns against the Islanders last Friday. He also completed two passes for 100 yards, one an 80-yard touchdown pass to Charlie Broaddus in the third quarter.
“He’s feeling much better,” Warhill coach Billy Jarvis said of Dedmond’s injury. “Anytime you can go down there (Poquoson Middle) and beat Poquoson it’s big, so this is a good moral booster for the guys.”
In jeopardy of falling 0-2, the Lions also got a solid performance from quarterback Seth Mallory, who started in place of the injured Seth Thompson.
“Seth [Mallory] did very well and didn’t turn the ball over,” Jarvis said. “He rushed 12 or so times for 60 or 70 yards and did a good job reading the option.”
Grafton Rallies to Beat New Kent, Earn First Bay Rivers Victory
For a team with aspirations of returning to the Group AA state playoffs, a 0-3 start to the season doesn’t leave much room for error down the stretch, assuming things do in fact turn around.
With teams like York and Lafayette cruising to fast starts in the Bay Rivers, three losses to open district play could be detrimental for the preseason district favorites, who were upset by Poquoson 21-20 in overtime two weeks ago following a hard-fought road loss at Powhatan to open the season.
So, with his team trailing a New Kent squad that lost a bulk of the talent and experience from last year’s team that won just a single game 13-7 at the break, staying positive was a challenge for Grafton coach Jared Van Acker’s head as he prepped a halftime speech.
“We came out so slow and made a bunch of mistakes in the first half, it was reminiscent of the first two games,” Van Acker said. “The halftime talk wasn’t pretty, but I’m very proud of the way my team came out in the second half and really showed what type of team we can be. We looked like two completely different teams in each half.
“We had our backs against the wall and could have slipped down a slope that could have affected the rest of our season,” Van Acker added. “A lot of people might say, ‘oh well Grafton is supposed to beat New Kent,’ but a win’s a win. Anything for our confidence is good right now because we lost a lot of it in ourselves the first couple weeks.
“As long as we improve from it, I can live with that. But I told them that we better not have this [halftime] talk again this season.”
Grafton outscored the host Trojans 42-8 in the second half thanks in large part to the rushing efforts of Dylan Bartells (29 carries, 177 yards 2 TD’s) and the quarterback play of Jett Johnson, who threw for three second-half touchdowns and made all the correct reads, according to Van Acker.
The Clippers hope to put together a winning streak this Friday when they play at Bruton.
Lafayette Cruises to 3-0 Start as Penalties, Turnovers Doom Bruton (Again)
As close as the Lafayette-Bruton rivalry has been over the years, this one was over before halftime.
The Rams led 19-0 after the first quarter and 39-7 after two quarters. As a team, Lafayette ran for over 250 yards on the ground with five different players recorded rushing touchdowns.
Despite nearly equaling the Rams’ rushing totals, Bruton’s troubles with penalties and turnovers continued, and proved costly, as the Panthers fell to 1-2 (0-2 Bay Rivers) on the season.
Bruton was flagged eight times for 65 yards on Friday and turned the ball over four times (two interceptions, two fumbles). That’s coming off last week’s 12-0 loss at Smithfield in both team’s district opener two weeks ago in which the Panthers committed 13 penalties for 125 yards and coughed up three turnovers.
“You’re not going to win football games with those kind of mistakes,” Bruton coach Tracy Harrod said over the penalties and turnovers that have plagued his team thus far. “But we’re going to continue to fight and try to get better from it and just continue to play Bruton football.”
Click the links below to read other full game recaps from last Friday:
