Richlands turns back Honaker in battle of unbeatens
Richlands (45) vs. Honaker (12)
Written: Oct 01, 2011
By ANTHONY STEVENS
for the Daily Telegraph
HONAKER, Va. — It’s 25 and counting for the Blues. Richlands won their 25th consecutive regular season contest and handed Honaker their first loss of the season Friday night, rolling to a 45-19 win at EMATS Stadium.
On a rainy night before a standing room only crowd, Honaker made it interesting for one quarter. The Tigers held a 12-7 lead, but a fumble in the end zone recovered by Richlands Todd McGlothlin for a touchdown quickly turned the game around.
“We made some mistakes early and gave up some big plays,” Richlands coach Greg Mance said. “But I was really proud of my defense.
“They made some adjustments and really came out strong after that first quarter. They controlled the line of scrimmage and controlled field position from that point.”
After the turnover, Honaker punted their next seven possessions. They didn’t get another first down until the fourth quarter.
“The defense just controlled the tempo, we got a bunch of three and outs,” stated Mance. “The offense was able to take advantage of it.”
A big part of that offense was running back Devon Johnson. Johnson finished with 215 yards on the ground. He had some big holes to run through, but he made himself a lot of running room by breaking numerous tackles.
“The O-line just did a great job,” said Johnson. “They gave me some big holes, I just hit them and kept going. I just tried to bounce it out and keep moving up the field to get the win for this team.”
Johnson scored three touchdowns and had one TD called back because of a penalty.
“Devon is just special,” commented Mance. “He broke tackles, he ran around people, he’s just a tremendous football player.
“He’s just now getting back to 100 percent. He’s big, elusive and hard to tackle.”
A.J. Johnson started the scoring for the Blues when he caught a 21-yard TD pass from Reece Strong. After McGlothlin’s fumble recovery, Strong scored on 1-yard quarterback keeper. Devon Johnson then put it away with TD runs of 16, 3, and 15-yards.
Strong, who was perfect on extra points, closed out the Richlands scoring with a 44-yard field goal.
“Offensively I was very pleased,” Mance said. “Anytime you score 45 points against a very good team you have to be happy. Give Honaker credit, they battled to the end. We’re just happy to get out of here with the win.”
The Tigers put together an impressive 10-play, 59-yard drive for the first touchdown. The key play was a 4th-and-8 conversion when quarterback Ty Hall connected with tight end Jeremiah Dye on a 21-yard gain. Jerod Honaker later scored on a 4-yard rush.
Hall then hit Payton Ball with a 40-yard TD pass to give the Tigers a 12-7 advantage with just over a minute to play in the first quarter. Honaker didn’t score again until late in the game.
“We played a great first quarter with them,” Honaker coach Doug Hubbard said. “We made a couple mistakes that hurt us. We couldn’t get a first down to get the defense off the field and Richlands took advantage of it.”
Honaker (5-1) is idle this week; Richlands (6-0) will travel to Marion.
At EMATS Stadium
Richlands............7 21 17 0 — 45
Honaker.............12 0 0 7 — 19
First Quarter
Hon—Honaker 4 run (kick failed)
Ric—A.J. Johnson 21 pass from Strong (Strong kick)
Hon—Ball 40 pass from Hall (pass failed)
Second Quarter
Ric—McGlothlin fumble recovery in end zone (Strong kick)
Ric—Strong 1 run (Strong kick)
Ric—D. Johnson 16 run (Strong kick)
Third Quarter
Ric—D. Johnson 3 run (Strong kick)
Ric—Johnson 15 run (Strong kick)
Ric—FG Strong 44
Fourth Quarter
Hon—Lester 11 run (Phillips kick)
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TEAM STATISTICS
First Downs: RIC 21, HON 12; Rushes-Yards: RIC 28-291, HON 40-107; Passing Yards: RIC 92, HON 128; Comp-Att-Int: RIC 4-13-1, HON 5-19-0; Fumbles-Lost: RIC 5-0, HON 3-2; Penalties-Yards: RIC 7-55, HON 4-20; Punts-Average: RIC 3-38, HON 7-30.
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