Season ends for G-Men in playoffs
Written: Nov 12, 2011
By LARRY CHAMBERS
for the Daily Telegraph
INDEPENDENCE, Va. — Grayson County won its first playoff game since 1991 Friday night with a 35-15 triumph over a much improved Graham team in the opening round of the Group A Division 2 West Section tournament at Bill Strong Field.
It was the second win over the G-Men this season for the Blue Devils, who beat them 41-3 in an Oct. 7 regular season game.
“Graham came to play and their quickness and execution gave us some problems,” said Blue Devil coach Brett McPherson.
Graham’s Aderrius Jackson finished his prep football career with 191 rushing yards. Fellow senior Gabe Hurt had 45 yards receiving. The Graham offense gained 270 yards compared to 478 for Grayson County.
Xavier Rodriguez powered the Blue Devils on their first drive, which Darren Anderson finished off the drive with a 3-yard run. Mario Ruiz kicked his first of seven extra points for a 7-0 lead with 9:46 to play in the quarter.
Graham drove to the Blue Devil 25, but Samuel Stowers’ field goal sailed wide right.
Anderson scored his second touchdown of the game with a 25-yard run late in the first quarter for a 14-0 lead.
Graham put together its first scoring drive of the night behind the hard running of Jackson. He ripped off a good gainer and looked like he would make it to the end zone but Rodriguez ran him down at the 4-yard line.
Three plays later, Jackson scored on a 1-yard run and with the extra point kick, the G-Men cut the deficit in half to 14-7.
But the Blue Devils answered Graham with a drive of its own. Rodriguez twisted his way through the Graham defense for a 45-yard touchdown run and Ruiz’ kick produced a 21-7 lead with 8:50 to play in the half.
The G-Men took control of the clock in the third period after taking the opening kickoff. They drove to the Blue Devil 32 and on a fourth and one play, the Blue Devil defense stopped the runner short of a first down.
After taking over on downs, Rodriguez got a step on the defense and raced 68 yards for the touchdown. The Blue Devils closed out its scoring when Rodgers hit Rudy with a 32-yard strike for a touchdown with 2:16 to play in the third.
Graham stormed back in the fourth period and Jackson finished off the scoring with a 10-yard touchdown run and also added the 2-point conversion run for the final margin.
McPherson said he felt his team played well to beat a team with Graham’s quickness. “They didn’t give up,” he said. “They played hard and one thing I wanted to avoid was to let them keep hanging around and closing the gap.”
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Chambers writes for The Declaration of Independence, Va.
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