Falcons soar by Blue Tornado
Richlands (23) vs. Abingdon (37)
Written: Oct 25, 2014
By MIKE DAVIS
for the Daily Telegraph
ABINGDON, Va. — The Abingdon Falcons have been rolling since falling to Gate City in the second week of the season with five straight wins.
Friday night, the Falcons (7-1) made it six straight to improve to 7-1 on the season when they stopped the Richlands Blue Tornado, 37-23.
“We have to play a great game to beat a great team like Richlands,” Abingdon head coach Darren Reed said. “They’re established and we’re trying to put our foot in the door and we have kids who are working extremely hard in practice.”
“Hat’s off to our kids, hats off to coach Mance and the job they do.”
The Falcons opened the game with the possession, however, after gaining 13 yards on the drive, had to punt the ball giving Richlands (5-3) the ball at their own 30-yard line.
Zeke Vance brought the visiting stands alive with a 41-yard run down the left sideline and it looked the Blues had resumed where they had left off two weeks ago before an open date.
Then, the Tornado stalled with a penalty and a sack to end the drive when they turned the ball over on downs. Abingdon drove the length of the field and Skyler Simcox kicked a 25-yard field goal to put the Falcons into a lead they would never relinquish.
Richlands got the ball back but could never get into a rhythm and putting the ball back to the Falcons who soared with their first touchdown of the game on a three-play drive.
Jake Sturgill found Jeff Wallace open on a seam route and he turned on the burners for a 34-yard touchdown with 26 seconds on the first quarter clock.
The Blue Tornado went three and out again and Abingdon took over on their own 48-yard line. An incomplete pass led to Raequon Jordan taking the ball seven yards and then three for a first down. The Falcons would get 19 first downs in the ball game.
Three plays later Abingdon went ahead 17-0 when Sturgill found Wallace again, this time for a 23-yard touchdown pass.
The Blues answered a couple possessions later when they went 80 yards in five plays and River Michaels completed a pass to Zeke Vance who raced 60 yards for a touchdown. The Tornado special teams missed the point after holding the score to 17-6.
The Falcons added one more wrinkle to the score before the close of the opening half when Simcox connected on his second field goal of the night from 41 yards out to take the score to 20- 6 through the remainder of the opening half.
Richlands came out in the second half and still couldn’t find their swagger and the Falcons kept coming after Michaels keeping the Tornado offense off balance and finished the night with eight sacks in all for a over 60 negative yards.
Abingdon’s Sturgill threw Wallace his third touchdown pass of the evening on their first possession of the second half following a Richlands bad snap on a punt.
The Falcons took the possession on the Tornado 29-yard line and scored in five plays when Sturgill hit Wallace for a 15-yard romp taking the Falcons lead to 27-6.
The Tornado answered with an 8-play drive capped by Michaels running in a 6-yard touchdown and then completed a two-point conversion pass to Griffin McCauley making it a two-possession game.
The Falcons added 10 points in the fourth quarter when Jaylen Claridy ran in a 10-yard score with 11:25 left in the game and Simcox hit a 40-yard field goal.
The Tornado scored nine points in the final quarter when Vance ran back an 86-yard kickoff return and Canaan Addison caught Jordan in the end zone.
“We were out of sync all night and Abingdon did a good job mixing their looks,” Richlands head coach Greg Mance said. “We kept shooting ourselves in the foot. It comes back to me, I’m the head coach and we didn’t have them ready to play. We’ll go back to the drawing board and get this corrected.”
The Falcons finished the game with a balanced attack with 339 yard led by Sturgilll who completed 15-of-31 passes for 173 yards and three touchdowns. Jordan had 94 yards on 13 attempts for the Falcons.
Richlands finished the night with 250 total offense with Michaels leading the way with 126 passing completing 11-of-19 passing attempts with one interception and one touchdown.
The Blue Tornado will host Lebanon next week and the Falcons travel to Tazewell.
At Falcon Stadium
Richlands..............0 6 8 9 — 23
Abingdon...........10 10 7 10 — 37
First Quarter
A – Simcox 25-yard field goal
A – Wallace 34-yard pass from Sturgill (Simcox kick)
Second Quarter
A – Wallace 23-yard pass from Sturgill (Simcox kick)
R – Vance 60-yard pass from Michaels (kick no good)
A – Simcox 41-yard field goal.
Third Quarter
A – Wallace 15-yard pass from Sturgill (Simcox kick)
R – Michaels 6-yard run (McCauley pass from Michaels)
Fourth Quarter
A – Claridy 10-yard run (Simcox kick)
R – Vance 86-yard kickoff return (Bandy kick)
A – Simcox 40-yard field goal
R – Safety, Canaan Addison tackled Jordan in the end zone
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