Graham gets in win column
Graham (40) vs. Grundy (6)
Written: Sep 20, 2014
By TOM BONE
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD — The Graham G-Men grew up, just in time for homecoming.
Using a crushing defensive effort and a multi-pronged offense, Graham rolled to a 32-0 halftime lead and wound up with their first victory of the year, 40-6 over the Grundy Golden Wave, on Friday night at Mitchell Stadium.
Ben Meade, recovered from an ankle injury, completed 5 of 7 passes for 145 yards for Graham (1-3).
Israel Harris racked up 108 yards on three receptions, two of which went for long touchdowns, and added a 70-yard scoring run on Graham’s first play of the second half. He finished with 189 all-purpose yards.
For the fourth time in four games, Graham’s senior fullback Dylan Cook went over the 100-yard mark rushing, gaining 132 yards on 11 carries — including all three plays on a hard-charging 65-yard drive for Graham’s third touchdown.
Taymon Cooke capped the G-Men’s second possession, a 75-yard drive, by taking a pitch 3 yards for Graham’s second score.
Logan Surface added to the scoring splurge with three extra point kicks and a 27-yard field goal late in the first half.
Graham head coach Mike Williams said, “The inside game was going pretty good for most of the night. Our fullback game, which is between the tackles, you credit the offensive line generally. ... They did a nice job tonight.”
Williams said about the return of Meade, a sophomore, at quarterback, “We’re excited to have him back. It looked like he was knocking off the rust pretty good tonight. It’ll be good to have him get a full week of practice next week.”
Freshman Jacob McNutt led the Grundy (0-4) with 77 rushing yards on 21 attempts. Daleton Anglin joined the backfield in the second half and gained 50 yards on 10 carries.
The Graham defense limited the Golden Wave to 163 net offensive yards on 57 snaps. Linebackers Devon Hagerman and Richmond led the defensive charge for the G-Men.
Williams said, “You wouldn’t always know it, looking at the scores, but I think the defense is coming along. I look at things like, are we pursuing to the football, are we hitting harder, and I think those areas are getting a little better, and you were seeing that tonight.”
“The only thing that concerned me a little bit was that we had a lot of penalties and we had two turnovers, two pretty sloppy turnovers, in the first half.”
“But all in all, in this business, winning’s tough, I don’t care who you’re playing. So, we’re excited to walk away with a win, and we’re looking forward to playing Giles next week.”
Graham senior Jarrod Richmond said, “They hit us hard, but we did what we wanted to do, we got the first win.”
Fellow senior Cook said, “I was really excited. I was ready to put a win up on the board, and I’m glad we got it done tonight.”
About the homecoming win, Cook said, “It’s my senior year. It’s my last chance. I wanted to go out with a bang.”
Harris scored on the third play of the game on a 53-yard reception.
On the final play of the first half, Meade stood up to a Grundy blitz, threw a spiral a split second before being slammed by a rusher, and heard the crowd react when Harris snagged the ball in the end zone for a 40-yard scoring play.
Grundy head coach Jeremy Ward said, “We started out, the first quarter, and moved the ball pretty well. Then we kind of hurt ourselves with a couple of penalties.
“Defensively, we had a couple of stops there early, and then they busted a big play on us and the momentum kind of went their way and we never could gain that back.”
“They’ve got a strong football team,” Ward said about Graham. “We knew it’d be a challenge for us.”
“Defensively, we’ve got to stop the running game, I’ve said that every week,” Ward said. “When we’re in position, we’ve got to make the plays. There were times we’d have them at the time and (weren’t) physically strong enough to take him down.”
“That Cook kid is a tough runner.”
The G-Men will visit unbeaten Giles in Pearisburg next Friday evening, while the Golden Wave continues its five-week stretch of road games with a trip to Haysi.
Cook said, “I hope we can just carry over our momentum until next week.”
Ward said about the start of the Golden Wave season, “They’re learning a tough lesson. ... When you have a young team, you put a lot on ’em.”
“But they’re coming along, developing. I know a lot of people may not see that, but these kids bust their butts every day in practice. Negativity shouldn’t be there, because they are working hard, and people need to lay off the kids, and support them.”
Williams said, “They’ve got a solid team over there. They’re pretty young, too, so hats off to those guys. They keep plugging along and keep coming at you — and they got one on us, late.”
— Contact Tom Bone at
tbone@bdtonline.com;
Twitter @BDTBone
At Mitchell Stadium
Grundy............................0 0 0 6 — 6
Graham.........................14 18 8 0 — 40
First Quarter
Graham - Israel Harris 53 pass from Ben Meade (Logan Surface kick), 10:21
Graham - Taymon Cooke 3 run (Surface kick), 5:09
Second Quarter
Graham - Dylan Cook 25 run (Cook run), 9:41
Graham - Surface 27 FG, 2:25
Graham - Harris 40 pass from Meade (Surface kick), 0:00
Third Quarter
Graham - Harris 70 run (Kyshon Lee pass from Meade), 9:57
Fourth Quarter
Grundy - Daleton Anglin 7 run (run failed), 2:59
———
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — Grundy, Jacob McNutt 21-77, Ethan Duty 6-33, Dylan Wolford 11-36, Daleton Anglin 10-50, team 3-(—48). Graham, Dylan Cook 11-132, Israel Harris 4-81, Taymon Cooke 5-12, Ben Meade 4-30, Kyshon Lee 1-6, Chase Sheets 1-21, Garrett Collins 1-3, Jevante Stevens 1-(—4), team 3-(—5).
PASSING — Grundy, Dylan Wolford 3-6-15-0 TD-1 intc. Graham, Ben Meade 5-7-145-2 TD-0 intc., Timothy Bourne 1-1-26-0-0.
RECEIVING — Grundy, Cole Street 2-17, Ethan Duty 1-(—2). Graham, Israel Harris 3-108, Jarrod Richmond 1-23, Kyshon Lee 1-14, Tyler Groseclose 1-26.
———
TEAM STATISTICS
Gru Gra
First downs 13 14
Rushes-yards 51-148 32-276
Passing yds. 15 171
Comp-Att-Intc. 3-6-1 6-8-0
Punts-Avg. 4-28 1-32
Fumbles-Lost 2-1 3-2
Penalties-Yards 3-25 5-25
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