Knocking down the Fort: Graham scores last to surprise Pioneers
Graham (25) vs. Fort Chiswell (22)
Written: Nov 01, 2014
By BRIAN WOODSON
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
BLUEFIELD — In what has been a painful season, full of injury and adversity, the Graham G-Men finally found a reason to smile, and even thank a higher power at the same time.
“I have got to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for this one, that is a big one, that was fun, it is nights like tonight why you do this,” Graham head coach Mike Williams said. “I am high as a kite right now and you can’t get a high like this doing anything else.”
Israel Harris and Taymon Cooke each scored fourth quarter touchdowns, and the G-Men forced a pair of late turnovers, upsetting Fort Chiswell 25-22 on a cold and rainy senior night at Mitchell Stadium.
It was Graham’s second upset win over the Pioneers in the last two years.
“Chiswell is always good every year,” Graham junior Roman Workman said. “We just came in here and played football as hard as we could. We had nothing to lose so we just came out here and played as hard as we could.”
Graham (3-6), which gave Fort Chiswell its lone regular season loss last season, came in with a plan to control the football, and it worked to near perfection from the start.
“That was the game plan the whole week, we had to slow these guys down, that is what we tried to do was slow them down,” said Workman, who started at quarterback for Ben Meade, who was one of several G-Men out with injuries. “We had the ball for so long and we just controlled it and we just executed. The run game was wild, we opened up with passing too, it is a great win, they don’t come easy, we will take it all day.”
Fort Chiswell (6-3) put the ball in the hands of Dallas Ward, who ran for 180 yards on 36 carries, while quarterback Taylor Gilman added 80 yards on the ground and threw for 49 more. That duo combined for three scores, putting the Pioneers up 20-12 with 11:42 left in the fourth quarter.
“(Ward) is a stud, he is a real tough back, he runs hard, he is thick, he is fast,” Williams said. “They have got some big hogs up front that he can run behind.”
Graham controlled the ball for much of the game, beginning with a 21-play, 82-yard drive that took up 12:51 of the opening half, with Workman scoring on a sneak from the 1-yard line for the 6-0 lead. That drive began at the 18 when the Pioneers turned the ball over on downs.
“The first half we put together a 21-play, 13-minute drive and obviously that helped our defense a lot,” Williams said. “I told the kids before the game to be patient, that were going to three and four yard them to death and that is exactly what they did.”
Penalties proved lethal to the Pioneers, finishing with 12 for 109 yards, including several offsides penalties on that drive, and three holding calls on a third period possession that eventually did end with a touchdown.
“They had a 20-play drive and then we got the ball and scored two times,” said Fort Chiswell first year head coach Tom Hale, who wasn’t pleased with the differential in penalties, with Graham having four infractions for 39 yards. “We need the football in our hands, that is our best defense and they did a good job on that first drive.
“We committed four penalties which kept that drive going so you can put a lot of the blame on Fort Chiswell.”
Ward, who had 122 yards in the second half, was the only non-quarterback to carry the ball for the Pioneers, and was able to score from five yards out to tie the score at 6-6 in what was a speedy 44-minute opening half.
“My hats off to these players, at different points they were down and they just kept plugging and playing and believing in what we were doing, and we got the results of it tonight,” Williams said. “With all that has gone on this season with injuries and so forth, I am just so proud of these kids for piecing together a monster win like that against a 6-2 squad, a very good team that not many people gave us a shot against.”
There was an explosion of offense after the break, with Fort Chiswell scoring on a pair of 2-yard runs by Gilman. Graham sandwiched an 11-yard score by Kyshon Lee in between those possessions, trailing 22-12 three plays into the final quarter.
Cooke then put Graham in position for a touchdown, returning the ensuing kickoff 45 yards. Three plays later, Harris dashed around the right side, escaped some arm tackles and sped 32 yards for the touchdown. Logan Surface added the extra point to pull within 22-19 with 9:47 on the clock.
After Fort Chiswell was forced into its first punt of the game, the G-Men got a 21-yard run by Lee into Pioneers’ territory, and Workman then threw a screen pass to Cooke, who split two defenders — much like he did last week at Bland County — and dashed to the end zone from 35 yards with 5:02 to go for the final margin.
Harris finished with 106 yards, including 75 after the break, for Graham, while Lee had 74. Cooke finished with three receptions for 59 yards.
“Israel made a great play, he just took off, and Taymon made a great play too,” said Workman, who threw for 75 yards. “We played with a lot of heart, we just came out and we are enjoying it right now.”
Neither team had committed a turnover to that point, but the G-Men finally got a break when Ward fumbled as the Pioneers were driving into Graham territory, and Tanner Miller recovered the ball.
“We hadn’t had a turnover all night and then we took two in the last couple of minutes and that was just colossal,” Williams said. “I told the kids at half, you have done a good job of taking care of the ball, but we need to get one on defense and they got two there at the finish.
“That is colossal, you go through the whole game with no turnovers and you get two in the last few minutes.”
Graham committed its lone turnover when Workman was picked off at the Fort Chiswell 3 by Landon Turner, but Cooke returned the favor four plays later, picking off a pass by Gilman with 56 seconds left to secure the win.
“(Cooke) is a freshman, he is going to an all-star, he is a rising all-star,” Workman said. “At the end we played great defense, defense wins ball games and that is what we did at the end.
“That is how we did it, we played good offense, but I thought our defense came out and did our thing too.”
Up next for Graham will be a visit next Friday from Narrows, but the Green Wave could wait on this night. The G-Men were going to enjoy this one.
“When you win it just makes everything easier,” said Williams, whose G-Men won for the second week in a row. “It is easier to practice, it is easier to lift weights, it is easier to get out of bed in the morning.
“Our kids I would say are pretty high on this one as they ought to be. They need to enjoy it, they are going to remember it for the rest of their lives.”
bwoodson@bdtonline.com
/ Twitter @bdtwoodson
at Mitchell Stadium
Fort Chiswell...............0 6 8 8 — 22
Graham........................0 6 6 13 — 25
Scoring
Second Quarter
GR—Roman Workman 1 run (kick failed) 7:09
FC—Dallas Ward 5 run (pass failed) 2:53
Third Quarter
FC—Taylor Gilman 2 run (Ward run) 6:35
GR—Kyshon Lee 11 run (pass failed) 1:47
Fourth Quarter
FC—Gilman 2 run (Ward run) 11:42
GR—Israel Harris 32 run (Logan Surface kick) 9:47
GR—Taymon Cooke 35 pass from Workman (kick failed) 5:02
———
Team Statistics
First Downs: FC 16; GR 15. Rush-Yards: FC 46-260; GR 47-198. Pass Yards: FC 49; GR 75. Total Yards: FC 309; GR 273. Comp-Att-Int: FC 3-7-1; GR 4-9-1. Fumbles-Lost: FC 1-1; GR 0-0. Penalty-Yards: FC 12-109; GR 4-39. Punts-Avg: FC 1-48; GR 1-26.
———
Individual Statistics
Rushing: FC Dallas Ward 36-180, Taylor Gilman 8-80; GR Israel Harris 20-106, Kyshon Lee 17-74, Roman Workman 7-18.
Passing: FC Taylor Gilman 3-7-1 int-49-0; GR Roman Workman 4-9-1 int-75-1 td.
Receiving: FC Terrell Thomas 1-32, Colby Rider 2-17 ; GR Taymon Cooke 3-59, Israel Harris 1-16.
Turnovers: FC Landon Turner int; GR Tanner Miller fr, Taymon Cooke int.
|