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By BILL ARCHER
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BASTIAN, Va. — Bland County’s young Bears came out of hibernation on a cool Friday evening and clawed their way to a hard-fought 14-12 win over the visiting Northwood High School Panthers from Saltville, Va.
The Bears rode the power running of Jakob Haun to put 8 points on the flickering scoreboard in the third quarter, then Bland signal-caller, Raymond Greene faked to Haun, and scampered around right end for the final points of the night with 3:50 left in the game. Haun and Greene are both seniors, but the supporting cast of underclassmen including sophomores Johnny David and Dylan Walker helped hold the Marion County visitors out of the endzone on two, two-point conversion attempts that made the difference in the game.
“Every game is a learning experience and a teaching opportunity,” Bland Coach Harris Hart said. “We made some adjustments when we came out in the second half and they listened.
“It’s fun,” Hart said. “That’s what coaching is all about — coaching and teaching. If they get it, it’s a lot of fun.”
Northwood brought its own power game and scored the only points of the first half after Jason Prater pinned the Bears back to the 6 yard line with 2 minutes remaining in the opening quarter, Morgan Buchanan pounced on a bad exchange and the offensive line opened a hole in the middle big enough for Prater to wander into the endzone with 1:49 left in the first quarter. Bland’s defense stiffened, and the score remained 6-0 at the half. BCHS’s David picked off a Channing Call pass and ran it in for a 74-yard return, but a holding call and unsportsman’s like call against the Panthers brought the ball back to mid-field where the half ended on an incomplete Greene pass.
“It was just a great game!” Northwood Coach Mark Frye said. “Both of these teams have young talent, but both are learning. Jason Prater is a sophomore and Channing Call is a freshman. Will Cardwell, Josh Bise and Jeremy Bise are all freshmen. We had leadership from seniors like Zach Halsey and Jonathan Turley, but we have a lot of young players.
“I don’t want to take anything away from Bland,” Frye said. “They played hard all game long and had a little more left than we did when we came out of our power game and went to the passing game. This was just a great game.”
Both teams had trouble hanging on to the ball through the first half. Walker stepped up big in the third quarter when he tackled Northwood’s Turley for a 3-yard loss on a fourth and one play that set the Bears up in business on the Panther 33 yard line. Haun ran off right guard, then left guard, then right guard and left again and eventually carried Halsey into the endzone on his back for the Bears first score with 3:21 left in the third. Haun used second effort to power in for the two-point conversion.
Prater put on a power running display in response, slicing and dicing for runs of 19 yards and 6 yards. Then, Blake Olinger, another Panther freshman, powered inside on runs of 3, 5 and 12 yards, setting Northwood up at point-blank range on the Bear 2 when time ran out in the third quarter. Olinger capped off the drive with a 2-yard run off right guard with 11:46 left in the game. Call’s conversion attempt pass fell incomplete. The scoreboard went haywire, prompting the officials to keep time on the field.
The Bears moved the ball on their next possession, but Prater picked off a Greene pass at their own 24 yard line. Bland’s Josh Tiller put a nice hit on Olinger for no gain, then the Bear defense clawed the ball loose from Prater and Walker recovered at the Panther 26.
Haun pounded the middle for two, then Greene faked to Haun, and swept left for 10 yards. Haun pounded the middle for another 3 yards, and on the next play, Greene faked to Haun inside, and slipped around right end for an 11-yard TD. Haun’s run was snuffed out. The Bears held off a Panther drive that ended when Greene intercepted Call’s pass at the Bear 19 with 9 seconds left in the game.
Northwood drops to 1-5 on the year and the Bears improve to 1-4. Bland travels to Narrows for their Mountain Empire District opener against the Green Wave.
at Bastian
Northwood...........6 0 0 6 — 12
Bland County........0 0 8 6 — 14
Scoring
First Quarter
NW—J.Prater 7 run (run failed) 1:49
Third Quarter
BC—J.Haun 5 run (J.Haun run) 3:21
Fourth Quarter
NW—B.Olinger 2 run (pass failed) 11:46
BC—R.Greene 11 run (run failed) 3:50
———
Individual Leaders
Rushing: NW—J.Prater 9-81, Z.Halsey 7-22; BC—J.Haun 25-97, J.David 9-34, R.Greene 10-27.
Passing: NW—C.Call 3-10-0 td-30-1 int; BC—Greene 0-4-0-0-2 int.
Receiving: NW—J.Prater 2-15, J.Williams 1-15.