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By BRIAN WOODSON
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD — Sheets is now open in Bluefield.
Spencer Sheets recovered his own fumble and dashed 34 yards for a fourth quarter touchdown and then prevented overtime with a deflected pass on a two-point conversion, fueling Graham to a 28-26 non-district win over Marion on Friday night at Mitchell Stadium.
Graham, which hadn’t played in two weeks after a 38-0 loss at Richlands, improved to 2-2 on the season, one more win than they had in 2010.
“Winning is hard and anytime you can get one regardless of what it looks like or the outcome, a win is a win and they are fun and they are hard to come by,” Graham head coach Mike Williams said. “We are going to enjoy this for a day or so and then we will gear up for Princeton...
“Getting a win feels good, being at .500 feels better than 1-3 would so we are real happy.”
Sheets led Graham with 75 yards on the ground, but his biggest offensive play came with 1:58 left in the final period when he fumbled the snap, picked up the ball and ran straight up the middle for what turned into the deciding touchdown.
“It was meant to be a dive left to our fullback, but I bobbled it,” Sheets said. “I didn’t give up on the play, I tried to make something happen. I have to give all the credit to my line. They blocked very well tonight and I couldn’t have done it without them.”
He wound up saving Graham from overtime in the final seconds when Marion (1-4) got new life on a pass interference call and then drove 74 yards on two pass completions by Marshall Wagner to Colin Gullian to pull within 28-26 with 58 seconds left on the clock.
However, on the two-point conversion attempt, Sheets jumped in front of an attempted Wagner pass and deflected it to the ground.
“They just called me in, and we had a great pass rush on the quarterback and I just dropped in the corner where I thought it was going to be,” Sheets said. “A great pass rush let to me just swatting the ball down.”
Graham had taken a 15-13 lead at the break on second quarter touchdowns by Corey Coppola and Aderrius Jackson — who missed most of the second half with an injury — and led 21-20 on a pair of field goals by Samuel Stowers from 43 and 40 yards, going into the final period.
“He even shocked me on those,” said Williams, Graham’s first year head coach with a smile. “We’re getting pretty close to his max on those two and he hit them both, which was obviously a big part of the game.”
Sheets added, “I had faith in Sam, I knew he could do it, he does it easy in practice, and I always believe in him.”
Marion, which took a 6-0 lead on a 65-yard return of the opening kick by Dylan Karriker, got back on top at 20-18 on a 26-yard run by Wagner. Ethan Richardson had the Scarlet Hurricane’s second first half score, dashing 49 yards to pull the visitors to within two points at the break.
“I am never happy with a loss, at all,” said first-year Marion head coach Joey Carroll, who played collegiately at Concord. “You can’t be happy with it, but I am proud of my guys.
“They fought hard and they keep fighting and they kept coming back.”
Marion actually had a chance to take the lead early in the fourth quarter on a field goal attempt by Ben Ampudia, but it was blocked and Hatfield recovered the loose pigskin and ran 83 yards for an apparent score.
Instead, the officials waved it off, pinning Graham deep in Marion territory.
“The referee said we had an inadvertent whistle that none of us heard, and that cost us the seven points,” Williams said. “Losing that was big, instead of a touchdown we had the ball inside our own 20.”
Still, Graham appeared destined to run the clock out behind Coppola, and the Sheets handoff was going to the 188-pound freshman when he bobbled the snap. The junior picked up the pigskin and dashed to the end zone.
“We bobbled the snap and he grabbed it. It was a busted play and he took off and ran for a touchdown,” Williams said. “He did a nice job for us. He probably had a good bit of yards running for us and he had a couple of nice throws for us so he did a real nice job.”
Marion took over — and after Graham’s John Jennings was injured and transported to a local hospital by ambulance — Wagner’s third down pass fell incomplete, but Gray Baker was called for interference.
With new life at his own 36, Wagner unleashed a pass good for 49 yards to Gullian, and then connected with Gullian again for the score from 25.
Needing a two-point conversion to force overtime, Wagner rolled out and against pressure, threw the ball into the end zone where Sheets secured the win.
“They stepped up and made a play when they needed to, which is the stuff of champions,” said Williams, who is also in his first season at Graham. “Hats off to Marion, they fought well and I knew with their offense if they had the ball back with any amount of time they had the ability to score and they did.
“Thankfully our defense stepped up big to win it.”
Richardson led all ballcarriers with 150 yards, while Wagner added 58, and threw for 95 yards, but Hatfield, Gabe Hurt and Hunter Cook all had first half interceptions for the G-Men. Gullian had three receptions for 83 yards.
“We feel pretty good about what we have got,” said Carroll, whose ‘Canes visit George Wythe next week. “Obviously we have got a lot of improvements to make, but that falls on us coaches.
“We have got to get them better and coach them better also.”
Graham finished with 239 yards on the ground, paced by Sheets (75), Cody Hatfield (69), Coppola (43), Jackson (40) and Michael Thompson (32).
“The running game went pretty good,” Williams said. “We had some struggles here and there, but it was enough to pull out the ‘W’.”
Twenty-three of the 42 players on Graham’s roster are sophomores and freshmen, and many of those contributed for the G-Men.
“I know we have a young team, but they are already playing very well in my opinion,” Sheets said. “I think we are just going to keep getting better.”
The G-Men will return to Mitchell Stadium next Friday to face Princeton, with hopes of a winning streak before opening Mountain Empire District play for the first time after decades of playing in the Southwest District.
“That just gives us more motivation to come out here and win,” said Sheets, of bouncing back from the loss to Richlands. “We just love playing this sport and we just want to get out here every day and win as many games as we can this year...
“We are going to treat (Princeton) like this game, we treat every game the same and we’re just going to go out there and play ball.”
—Contact Brian Woodson
at bwoodson@bdtonline.com
at Mitchell Stadium
Marion.......................................6 7 7 6 — 26
Graham....................................0 15 6 7 — 28
Scoring
First Quarter
MR—Karriker 65 kick return (kick failed) 11:50
Second Quarter
GR—Coppola 2 run (Coppola pass from Sheets) 10:39
GR—Jackson 9 run (Stowers kick) 8:21
MR—Richardson 49 run (Ampudia kick) 6:39
Third Quarter
GR—Stowers 43 field goal 8:10
MR—Wagner 26 run (Ampudia kick) 5:41
GR—Stowers 40 field goal :53
Fourth Quarter
GR—Sheets 34 fumble recovery (Stowers kick) 1:58
MR—Gullian 25 pass from Wagner (pass failed) :58
———
Team Statistics
First Downs: MR 14; GR 13. Rush-Yards: MR 37-211; GR 43-239. Passing Yards: MR 98; GR 20. Comp-Att-Int: MR 5-15-3; GR 3-7-0. Fumbles-Lost: MR 0-0; GR 1-0. Penalty-Yards: MR 3-20; GR 7-60. Punts-Avg: MR 2-30.5; GR 5-31.0.
———
Individual Statistics
Rushing: MR Richardson 16-150, Wagner 17-58, Gullian 1-3; GR Sheets 9-75, Hatfield 10-69, Coppola 11-43, Jackson 6-40, Thompson 5-32, Hill 1-(-9).
Passing: MR Wagner 5-15-3-98-1; GR Sheets 1-2-0-23-0, Baker 2-5-0(-3)-0.
Receiving: MR Gullian 3-83, Karriker 2-15; GR Thompson 1-23, Sheets 2-0.
Turnovers: MR none; GR Hatfield, int; Hurt, int; H.Cook, int.