Blue Tornado blanks Patrick County
Richlands (49) vs. Patrick County (0)
Written: Sep 24, 2011
By MIKE DAVIS
for the Daily Telegraph
RICHLANDS, Va. — Richlands made easy work of a non-district match up against Patrick County Friday night at Ernie Hicks Stadium/Emats Field. The Blue Tornado’s (5-0) scored two touchdowns in each of the first three quarters and one in the fourth while the defense stonewalled the Cougar offense to dominate in a 49-0 shutout.
“We’re proud of our football team, we came out a little flat after a big game last week,” Richlands head coach Greg Mance said. “We’ll go back and correct our mistakes, but, we were glad to go out there and give a lot of people reps. But, we’ll come out next week fired up and ready to go.”
Devon Johnson led the Tornado attack on the ground with 145 yards on seven carries with three touchdowns and Colton Staten carried the ball three times for 65 yards. The Blues finished the night with 456 yards with 14 first downs; compared to the Cougars, who had a total of 67 yards on the night with four first downs. Reece Strong completed 8-of-11 passes for 175 yards with one touchdown.
“Offensively we’re getting better every week,” Mance said. “Reece (Strong) does such a great job putting the ball where it needs to go. A.J. Johnson had a big catch tonight and that was his fourth of the season and Todd McGlothlin had a couple of good catches along with Dustin Duggan and D.J. Flack.”
“Defensively, we did much better tonight, we tackled much better and controlled the line of scrimmage and in the secondary Michael Horton looked really good out there.”
Richlands exploded on the very first play of the game when Devon Johnson broke free around the end and bolted 66 yards for a touchdown with 23 seconds off the first quarter clock. Reece Strong added the point after for a Blues’ lead that would never fall.
The Cougars couldn’t move the chains giving the ball to the Tornados with a punt on fourth down.
The Blues took over at their own 47-yard line and went back to the rushing attack. Strong began the series when he handed the ball to Johnson to come through the line with a full head of steam. Once into the open field, Johnson eluded tacklers and took it to the house for a 53-yard touchdown.
Patrick County couldn’t move the line of scrimmage following the Richlands score and had to punt the ball back into the hands of the Blue Tornado offense.
Richlands went to work from their own 45-yard line with Strong under center and called a pass play completing an 11-yard strike to Gabe Hunsaker to the Patrick County 44-yard line. Then, Strong fired a 17-yard strike to D.J. Flack pushing the ball deep into Cougar territory.
The Patrick County defense pursued Strong in the backfield and made the tackle five yards behind the line of scrimmage before a Tornado reception went awry and the ball fell to the turf with the Cougars pouncing on the gift stopping the Richlands drive.
The two teams traded possessions before the Blues added their third score of the game in the second quarter on a two-play drive beginning with a 9-yard run by Johnson from his own 27-yard line. Then, Strong dropped back and laced a completion to A.J. Johnson near midfield and the play turned into a catch and run. A.J. Johnson opened up the jets and turned the play into a 64-yard touchdown.
The Blues added one more touchdown before the end of the first half when a Patrick County fumble gave Richlands the ball at the Cougar 44-yard line. It took the Tornado’s three plays to convert the turnover into points.
Devon Johnson started the drive with a 16-yard gain, then, Strong hit Todd McGlothlin for a 22-yard pass pushing the chains to the Cougar 6-yard line for a first-and-goal. Devon Johnson got the call and rumbled in almost untouched for the fourth Tornado touchdown of the evening.
The Richlands defense came out in the third quarter and stopped the Cougars in their first possession, then, Michael Horton forced a fumble with a mad scramble for the ball. Richlands Eric Johnson came out of the pile with the ball giving the Tornado the short field.
The Blues went to Colton Staten from the Cougar 13-yard line with back-to-back handoffs and the sophomore went up the middle for an 11 yard run, then, took into the end zone for a 3-yard touchdown.
Richlands’ sixth touchdown of the evening came with 3:21 left in the third quarter when Eric Johnson scored from the Patrick County 3-yard line set up by Staten who had a long gain of 64 yards, then, a 4-yard gain in the three-play drive.
The Blues took a 42-0 lead into the fourth quarter and scored another touchdown with 2:16 left in the game when Ratliff bowled in from the 1-yard line. Strong kicked his seventh extra point of the night to cap the Tornado scoring.
The Blues travel to Honaker next week to play the Tigers who is also undefeated.
At Ernie Hicks Stadium/Emats Field
Patrick County.....................0 0 0 0 — 0
Richlands...........................14 14 14 7 — 49
Scoring
First quarter
R — Devon Johnson 66-yard run (Strong kick)
R — Devon Johnson 53-yard run (Strong kick)
Second quarter
R — A.J. Johnson 64-yard pass from Strong (Strong kick)
R — Devon Johnson 6-yard run (Strong kick)
Third quarter
R — Staten 2-yard run (Strong kick)
R — Eric Johnson 3-yard run (Strong kick)
Fourth quarter
R — Taylor Ratliff 1-yard run (Strong kick)
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