Bears roll up the yards in Bland County victory
By JERRY SCOTT for the Daily Telegraph Bluefield Daily Telegraph
GLADE SPRING, Va. — Do Bears make good rugs? In some cases, yes. But in the case of Bland County’s footballin’ Bears, not so much.
As the Rebels of PH-Glade Spring were making their boisterous entrance onto the gridiron for their 2010 opener, they ran through a banner, the two key words on it proclaiming something about bears and rugs. By the time the game was over, it was the Bears who exited the field, triumphant after having walked all over the homestanders 34-14.
Behind a stingy defense, the Bears claimed Harris Hart’s fifth season-opening win in his six Bland County seasons, the lone blemish being last year’s 26-8 loss to these same Rebels. This year, again, not so much.
The Bears unleashed a very potent pass defense that had the Rebels’ senior quarterback, Jonathan Whitesides, back-peddling throughout the night. Six sacks among 12 tackles for loss limited the home team to 84 total rushing yards. Brady Dillow and Jakob Haun were each credited with 1.83 sacks and the six by the team fell one short of tying Bland County’s all-time single game record of seven.
Dillow and Haun finished with 10 and nine tackles, respectively, and Blaine Fisher finished with eight, including a sack. PH-Glade Spring wound up with 177 total yards, including 93 passing by Whitesides.
Not lost in the win was the offense, a group that last year struggled mightily at times to put points on the board. In this year’s opener, not so much.
The Bears punched out 297 yards rushing, added another 62 passing, and got touchdowns from three different players. Jacob Lambert rolled up 132 yards on 15 carries and scored twice.
Dylan Kidd hit six of 10 passes and rushed for 86 yards on 11 carries with a pair of scores. Senior Michael Parker also scored and added 39 rushing yards.
The Bears got on the board first by scoring on a three-yard run by Kidd at the 7:20 mark of the first quarter. The score capped a 12-play drive that covered 71 yards following the first of five Jordan Dennison punts. A Kidd-to-Raymond Greene pass on third down from the Bears’ 35 kept the drive alive and the Bears later converted two other third down situations during the drive to keep it sustained.
The Rebels drew to within 7-6 on the ensuing possession, Whitesides with a 25-yard scoring run at the 9:32 mark of the first half. That ended a seven-play drive and Caleb Sayler was off with the PAT kick in an attempt to tie the game.
Bland County upped its lead to 14-6 four plays later, Kidd again scoring for the Bears on a 16-yard run at the 7:39 mark. Jason Simms, who suffered a season-ending injury in this game last season, got the drive going with a 21-yard burst from the Bears’ 44 to the Rebels’ 35 moments after Lambert’s 27-yard kickoff return.
With 26 seconds left before halftime, Rebel coaches elected not to punt from their own 32. Instead Whitesides threw incomplete and moments later, Bland County’s Kidd threw 21 yards to Simms to the Rebel’s 11, the play followed by Lambert’s 11-yard scoring run with five seconds left that pushed Bland County’s lead to 21-6.
PH-Glade Spring scored on a seven-play, 63-yard drive to open the third stanza, closing to 21-14 on Whitesides’ 10-yard scoring run and two-point conversion run. His third down pass of 33 yards to sophomore Merrick Mullins from the Rebel’s 35 was the key play during the drive.
Bland County pushed the lead to 27-14 on the ensuing possession, Lambert with a 12-yard run to cap the drive at the 5:14 mark of the third period. Big to this drive was an 18-yard run by Kidd from the PH-Glade Spring 42 that had a facemask flag attached to set up Lambert’s score from the 12.
After a punt, Bland County tacked on its final score as the Bears marched 53 yards in six plays to extend the advantage to 34-14. Parker got the call four times and carried 35 yards, including the final nine for a touchdown with 6:15 remaining.
Junior fullback Josh Compton was the Rebel’s top ball carrier with 41 yards on eight carries. Mullins caught four passes for 85 yards and Bland County’s savage sack-attack limited Whitsides to just eight yards on 13 carries as the sacks netted 38 lost yards.
Bland County’s Hart was elated to get the win, especially against a Division 2 foe. He also made reference to the youth of last year’s team and how much they’ve matured in a year’s time from being ‘cubs’ to now being ‘bears.’
“They’ve grown up some, haven’t they?” he said after the game. “They played a really good football game against a really good team. We noted in pre-game that in the opening game, the team with the least amount mistakes and turnovers usually wins. We had the only turnover of the game but made very few other mistakes. Our offensive line did a great job in springing our backs and our pass pressure was really good as he did have any time to set up and throw.”
The Bears return to action this Friday, another road trip taking the Bears to Craig County to face the Rockets. Like the Bears, Craig County is also 1-0 following their 42-6 victory over Auburn last Friday night.
*****
Bland County...........7 14 6 7 - 34
PH-Glade Spring.....0 6 8 0 - 14
First quarter
BC - Kidd 3 run (Lambert kick), 7:20
Second quarter
PH - Whitesides 25 run (kick failed), 9:32
BC - Kidd 16 run (Lambert kick), 7:39
BC - Lambert 11 run (Lambert kick), :05
Third quarter
PH - Whitesides 4 run (Whitesides run), 8:12
BC - Lambert 12 run (kick failed), 5:14
Fourth quarter
BC - Parker 9 run (Lambert kick), 6:15
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TEAM STATISTICS
BC PH
First downs 14 5
Rushes-yds 38-297 35-84
Comp-Att-Int 6-10-0 5-14-0
Passing yds 62 93
Returns-yds 5-68 4-13
Fumbles-lost 1-1 0-0
Penalties-yds 7-42 9-75
Punts-avg yds 2-29.5 5-27.8
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INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Bland County, Lambert 15-132, Kidd 11-86, Parker 6-39, Simms 5-35, Walker 1-5...PH-Glade Spring, Compton 8-41, Dennison 2-17, Fullen 7-16, Whitesides 13-8, Salyer 1-7, Groves 4-(–5)
PASSING — Bland County, Kidd 6-10-62...PH-Glade Spring, Whitesides 5-14-93
RECEIVING — Bland County, Simms 1-21, R. Greene 2-14, Radford 1-12, Lambert 1-10, Stowers 1-5...PH-Glade Spring, Mullins 4-85, Compton 1-8
Bland County tackles: (solo-assists-sacks) Fisher 3-5-1, Kidd 3-2-0, Haun 1-8-1.83, Lambert 2-2-0, Collins 0-2-0, Dillow 3-7-1.83, Mustard 1-3-0, C. Greene 2-4-.33, Cox 1-1-0, Gibson 1-1-0, Simms 0-3-0, Goins 0-1-0, Holston 0-1-0, Griffith 0-1-0, Dunn 0-1-.5, Dax 0-1-0, R. Greene 0-1-0, M. Pauley 0-1-.5, Stowers 2-0-0, Walker 0-1-0, A. Pauley 0-1-0. Totals 19-47-6
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
Bland 34, Patrick Henry 14
Bland finished with 355 yards of total offense in handing homestanding Patrick Henry a loss.
Dylan Kidd threw for a score and added a rushing touchdown to lead the Bears. They led 21-6 at halftime and cruised from there.
PH quarterback Jonathan Whitesides accounted for both of Patrick Henry’s TDs. He rushed for a score and also tossed a scoring strike to Merrick Mullins.
The Rebels finished with 182 yards of total offense.
Complete stats were not available |
