Workman-like effort for Graham
Graham (61) vs. Narrows (7)
Written: Nov 07, 2015
By GEORGE THWAITES
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
NARROWS, Va. — It hasn’t always been peaches and ice cream for Graham’s football team this season. But on Friday night at Ragsdale Field, the G-Men wrapped up the regular season in Workmanlike fashion.
Quarterback Roman Workman passed for 218 yards and three touchdowns and Graham broke finished break-even with a lopsided 61-7 Mountain Empire District win over Narrows.
The G-Men (5-5, 4-1) piled on 290 yards rushing en route to their third straight victory while containing the Green Wave to 106 on the ground and 71 in the air.
Graham coach Tony Palmer wasn’t terribly carried away with the numbers.
“To be totally honest with you, I wasn’t exactly pleased in the first half. I thought we were extremely sloppy. We came out flat,” said Palmer, whose squad is assured a spot in next week’s 2A West
playoffs.
“I talked to the guys and told them we can’t do that in the playoffs. We have to play four quarters of football. But we got it together in the second half, executed a little bit and stepped the game up some,” he said.
Workman, who capped the G-Men’s opening possession of the first quarter with a 25-yard touchdown pass to Benjamin Meade, said Narrows’ effective run defense early on put the onus on the passing attack to help open up the running lanes.
“We tried to look downfield a little bit more tonight. We tried to get the running game going and they were playing good inside, so we had to open it up a little bit more,” Workman said.
Workman, who completed 9 of 10 passing attempts with zero interceptions, hit Taymon Cooke with a 14-yard scoring strike in the second quarter. Before that, he mailed a 43-yard throw to De’Quan Booker that put running back Jamorya’ Cousin on the doorstep for a 3-yard TD plunge.
Workman went on to hit a wide-open Cameron Allen for a 51-yard touchdown bomb early in the third quarter.
Cousin, who added a 23-yard scoring run for the 41-7 advantage in the third quarter, led Graham with 136 yards rushing on 12 carries. His most spectacular run of the night was a tackle-shaking 48-yard jukefest in the first quarter that set up Dante Vineyard’s 3-yard TD crash.
Once again he gave fans something to talk about, but he said he’d just as soon they talked about the entire team.
“Don’t pay attention to me. Pay attention to the Graham G-Men. We’re on a mission and we’re gong to get there,” said Cousin. “Our athletes are living proof. I can do the work. Roman can do the work. Taymon can do the work. (Booker) can do the work ... everybody can do the work.”
Graham’s speed on the edges translated on the other side of the football into distractingly heavy pressure on Narrows quarterback Cole Blaker. The G-Men sacked the talented Green Wave signal caller no fewer than five times. Graham also collected defensive points late when Logan Surface picked off Blaker and returned it 20 yards for a score as time expired in the third quarter.
Israel Harris, who coughed the football up late in the first quarter for Graham’s lone fumble, finished with 67 yards on only three carries, including a 2-yard TD run he set up himself with a preceding 62-yard scramble.
John Dudeck capped scoring in the fourth quarter with a 5-yard TD run.
It was a disappointing conclusion to senior night for Narrows (5-5, 2-3), which will squeeze into the 1A West playoff field despite Friday’s loss. But after Harris’ early turnover, the Green Wave did exactly what it needed to do to give themselves a chance to get back into the ballgame.
Blaker led Narrows on a clock-grinding and suspenseful 15-play possessions that saw the Green Wave QB pull off two clutch third-down conversions that kept the drive alive. After getting sacked for an 11-yard loss by Thomas Cooke, Paris Ballard and Cooke, Blaker pulled a fast one on 4th and 21. He hit running back Blaize Hopkins on a screen pass that burned the blitz for a 41-yard touchdown that trimmed Graham’s lead to 14-7.
Thanks to Workman’s big throw to Booker on the next series, hope for a Narrows comeback lasted only three snaps.
“Our best defense tonight was our offense. That was the thought coming into the game,” said Narrows coach Kelly Lowe. “Cousin is an excellent running back. Their line blocked well. Workman hurt us with a couple deep balls. If you load the box up trying to stop Cousin, Workman is going to beat you over the top.”
at Ragsdale Field
Graham.............................14 14 27 6 — 61
Narrows..............................0 7 0 0 — 7
Scoring
First Quarter
Gr—Benjamin Meade 25 pass from Roman Workman (Logan Surface kick) 9:28
Gr— Dante Vineyard 3 run (Surface kick)5:57
Second Quarter
N— Blaize Hopkins 41 pass from Cole Blaker (Landon Neal kick) 6:08
Gr— Jamorya’ Cousin 3 run (Surface kick)4:53
Gr—Taymon Cooke 14 pass from Workman (Surface kick)2:37
Third Quarter
Gr—Cameron Allen 51 pass from Workman (run failed) 9:48
Gr—Cousin 23 run (Surface kick) 2:49
Gr—Israel Harris 2 run (Surface kick) 0:47
Gr—Surface 20 interception return (Surface kick) 0:00
Fourth Quarter
Gr— John Dudeck 5 rrun (kick blocked) 1:47
• • •
Team Stats
First downs: Gr 17, N 12. Rush-yards:: Gr 26-290, N 39-106. Pass yards: Gr 218, N 71. Total yards: Gr 508, N 177. Comp-Att-Int: Gr 9-10-0, N 5-19-1. Fumbles-lost: Gr 1-1, N 0-0. Penalty-yards: Gr 2-20, N 6-49.
• • •
Individual Stats
Rushing: Gr, Jamorya’ Cousin 12-136, Israel Harris 3-67, John Dudeck 3-42, Chandler Cooper 4-2, Roman Workman 3-17, Dante Vineyard 1-4. N, Blaize Hopkins 10-38, Bailey Snidow 7-37, Cole Blaker 22-31
Passing: Gr, Workman 9-10-3-218-0. N, Blaker 5-19-1-71-1.
Receiving: Gr, Benjamin Meade 3-55, Taymon Cooke 3-66, De’Quan Booker 2-46, Cameron Allen 1-51. N, Hopkins 1-41, Neal 3-22, Morgan Welch 1-8.
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