I, the Captain, held watch over the Hurricane battlefield last week and fortunately for all involved, was not called into service.  Although, I had to manually over-ride my laser-vision to keep from toasting a Hurricane who displayed particularly poor sportsmanship on a blatant late-hit.  When that game was clearly out of danger and the Captain clearly right on the outcome, I zipped up the interstate to Wytheville.  As expected, no contest there.  Then a two minute flight over the mountain to Galax revealed the outcome expected by the Captain, however, I was surprised by the margin.  Galax's new system must be better than anticipated, or actually, the old one was much, much worse than I thought.  A quick trip back across the mountain to picturesque Rural Retreat caused the Captain a great deal of shock.  The Fort had to have "recruited" very well in the offseason to have lost Viars and Rodriguez and to have manhandled the Captain's "darkhorse favorite" the way they did.  Going back down 81 to Glade showed the Captain exactly what he expected to see there.  That Garth Vader/Walmart jinx is quite powerful.  Then the Captain took a 30 second trip up Route 91 to see what was going on near Damascus.  Amazing, it was only the middle of the third quarter.  The scoreboard was out.  Report was that a Washington County Maintenance Crew severed the wiring with a lawnmower and fried everything and that it had been out the entire game.  It was a blessing for the Cavalier faithful. 

 

Thanks, Admin for the direct deposit.  Glad HogoOnline has become that sophisticated and it was far more than anticipated!  Actually, was able to pay the Gridironmobile off in full and book a two-month Mediteranean Cruise.  Hope to solve the problems in the Middle-East while there this winter.  And was able to put a lot in savings!  But, for now, and most importantly, got to pick next weeks games:

 

 

Rural Retreat at Floyd:  Two perennial powers.  One who is on the rise, (despite last week), and one who is on the decline.  I still don't know how the Fort beat Rural Retreat this year after losing what they lost from last year, however, that's what programs are made of and the Fort has a darn good coach.  The Captain has not abandoned his darkhorse favorite and feels strongly that they will take out their frustrations from last week on a diminished Floyd squad.  Floyd is always tough, however, not tough enough this week.

  

Marion at Northwood:  Again, the Captain's heart goes out to the Panthers and if I had not taken an oath from the Admin in this league, I would use my powers to influence this game.  (Really, when you see a guy trip or slip for "no reason", or a wide open receiver "drop" a pass, or a quarterback vaporized by lasers from the sky do you think it is just a "coincidence?)"  However, the Captain has sworn that he will not influence a game.  But, the Plasterco Monster can, as she has done for years and years, with sink-holes falling through the middle of "shaker field" and opposing running backs or receivers who had wide open touchdowns falling into the mines and being devoured by the beast or better, wandering around for days.  (Know a Chilhowie guy from the early 70s who spent 8 days in the mines, constantly dodging the beast and lived to tell about it).  Therefore, because of my oath, the Canes, unless the Monster intervenes, will be just too much for NW again this week.  DON'T GET DISCOURAGED.  Again, the Captain says that better days are coming.  Especially if you can get that monster on your side again.  Marion 28, NW 7.

  

Patrick Henry at Abingdon:  It's been a while since PH has beaten Abingdon.  The PH faithful on the message board cannot even get it straight when it happened.  PH has a great quarterback in Whitesides, however, they have not been able to help him enough to win.  PH has played a tough team in a scrimmage, a tough team in a benefit game, and lost to a mediocre D-1 team in the first game.  That Garth Vader jinx on the Glade truck stops is just too much - stop it Garth, or you'll deal with the Captain!  Fortunately, Abingdon has only had one scrimmage, and that occurred about 3 weeks ago - they thought they were good enough to contend with Tennessee High.  Fortunately, higher powers knew better and intervened with a vicious lightening storm.  This game will be close in the first half.  Abingdon will be EXCEEDINGLY sloppy.  The Captain has been invited to a wine and cheese tasting by the Abingdon Athletic Department at Glenrochie before this game and may very well attend.  He likes him a good Merlot and the New York Sharp, flown in on the Abingdon athletic department's private jet is simply to die for.  So, the Captain will be there unless he cannot get his black cape - to go with the black-tie Abingdon tailgate - from the cleaners.  I believe Abingdon will go 2-8 this year.  Unfortunately, one of the two is this week.  (The other Tazewell - gonna lose to Battle, said it here first).  Abingdon 35, PH 13.

 

Grayson at Chilhowie:  T Those Independence/Fries boys do know how to hit.  Grayson has shown signs of improvement this year and will probably be the Fort's greatest nemesis in the Mountain Empire.  But, those Warriors I saw last week simply seem too strong to lose to the likes of Grayson.  Daniel Ashby will wreak havoc on the Grayson backfield.  Sturgill to Sturgill is worth two touchdowns.  The loaded Warrior backfield is worth the rest.  Chilhowie 30, Grayson 12.

 

Twin Springs at Holston:  This one could be a toss-up.  Twin Springs got thrashed by Battle last week - 35-0 and could've been much worse based upon the Captain's sources.  Holston got man-handled by St. Paul, although mounted a strong attempt at a come-back once Cody Hawkins was put in a quarterback.  (Now the Hogo's leading quarterback in stats after 1 and 1/2 quarters).  As the Captain said last week, Matlock knows what he's doing and the play-calling was absolutely beautiful as the Captain saw it and heard about it.  From overhead, the fake to DeArmond and cross-buck to Applegate for a 30 yard gain was a thing of beauty.  Apparently, from all that was heard, the EXECUTION, not play-calling, was lacking early on.  8 or 9 holding penalties didn't help either, as well as 4 turnovers.  It's hard to start every series at first and twenty.  Holston clearly should have beaten a pretty good St. Paul team.  Holston has a few of the best athletes around, although they are sorely missing Cody Blevins on both sides of the ball.  The Captain did get to Holston in time last week to see both on-sides kicks.  Ethan Miller, kicker, kicked TWO PERFECT onsides kicks.  For you guys that don't know, the kick has to go low, then take a VERY high bounce.  That's what happened twice.  This kid might go to college somewhere just to kick onsides kicks.  (Did okay on everything else too, from what I heard.  But, he's a soccer player, so no surprise!).  I've gotta take the Hogo team here, Holston 30, TS 21.