Graham to face battle-tested Fort Chiswell

By BRIAN WOODSON

Bluefield Daily Telegraph

BLUEFIELD, Va. — That 4-4 record that Fort Chiswell currently boasts?

It’s a little misleading.

Check out the schedule. The Pioneers’ four losses have come to teams with a record of 31-1, including undefeated Grayson County, Galax and George Wythe, and 7-1 Rural Retreat, and the Indians’ lone loss was to Grayson County.

No wonder Graham head coach Mike Williams isn’t shy in his description of the Pioneers.

“Fort Chiswell is a great team,” Williams said. “They were a nine-win team last year so it is not new territory for them. They are historically pretty good.”

How important is tonight’s game between the G-Men (3-5, 1-2) and the Pioneers (4-4, 1-2) to both teams? The top 16 teams in Group A, Division 2 in the West Section will earn playoff berths. The Pioneers are 16th, the G-Men are 17th.

“Those final playoff spots are going to come down to us two and maybe a couple of others,” Williams said. “You don’t ever want to be in a situation where you are playing an ‘x’ number of games and ‘playing for pride’.

“You would like to play for something and right now our kids are striving toward a seed in the playoffs. Once you get that then it becomes all about matchups and anybody can move forward.”

While Fort Chiswell enters having dropped a 41-40 decision to top-ranked Grayson County — only because of a blocked punt that turned into a safety — the G-Men snapped a three-game losing streak with a 31-0 win last Friday over Bland County, Graham’s first-ever win in the Mountain Empire District.

“It’s amazing how when you win all your problems disappear,” Williams said. “When you lose every little thing is a problem — and that is true anywhere — and when you win they automatically disappear.”

That win was Graham’s first shutout since 2007, and largest margin of victory since ‘06. Despite three turnovers, the G-Men ran up 418 yards on the ground to dominate the young Bears, and enter this week feeling much better about themselves.

“They pitched a shutout which hasn’t been done in Graham football in four years, they won by 31 points, and Graham football hasn’t done that in five years, and they ran for over 400 and that is a pretty rare feat,” Williams said. “They have done a lot of things that Graham football as a whole hasn’t done in some time, they are feeling pretty good right now.”

For that feeling to continue, the G-Men will need more of the same against Fort Chiswell, which scored 19 points in the fourth quarter against Grayson County, only to lose in the final seconds.

The Pioneers are paced by quarterback Cory Mabry, tailbacks Trey Jackson and Ray Rodriguez, and defensively by Josh Thomas and Daniel Hamm.

“They’ve got good size in the line, great skill positions and with those guys you have really got to pick your poison a little bit,” Williams said. “You shut their run down and they throw real well and you shut the throw down, they run real well.

“They are pretty balanced in that they can do both pretty good. They are going to be a tough team for us.”

While Fort Chiswell’s losses have been to teams with a 31-1 record, their win are over clubs with a combined mark of 7-25. While the Pioneers nearly beat Grayson County, Galax clubbed the Pioneers 52-0.

Graham lost to both the Blue Devils and Maroon Tide by a combined 86-17.

“In that particular game, I think Galax got up on them early, we have been in situations like that, when you get down early for various reasons it makes it hard to stay in the game,” said Williams, whose G-Men lost to the Maroon Tide 45-14. “

You can see on film they did throw the ball well against Galax. Narrows, it looked like they ran a lot more, they’ve got backs that block hard and push it up in there.

“Defensively, they are going to be pretty stout, they held Narrows to six points. All around they are going to be a pretty tough team, no question about it.”

Graham finally got its running game on track last week, with Gabe Hurt (124) and Aderrius Jackson (111) eclipsing the century mark, while Spencer Sheets added 87 and Lamont Edwards contributed 51 yards and a touchdown to go with 18 tackles against the Bears.

The G-Men were, however, victimized by three turnovers and lots of penalties, both of which have hampered Graham all season long.

“If we can eliminate penalties and turnovers and that has been problematic, that gives us a chance,” Williams said. “When you turn the ball over and you get plays called back you aren’t even giving yourself a chance

“That will be key for us, I think our focal point needs to be more on ourselves and less on Fort Chiswell and I think we will be fine.”

Graham’s defense, which stepped up big against Bland County, will be on the spot in this one again, led by Edwards, who has 82 tackles, six tackles for loss and four forced fumbles this season.

Hunter Cook (62 tackles, 4 tfl), Jacob Tibbs (54 tackles) and Cody Hatfield (52 tkls, 2 int) are also among the leaders of a deep defensive unit.

“Their offensive game is a pretty good blend of power running and dropping back and throwing...,” Williams said. “I don’t see a real weakness in either part of that game.

“Against Bland, we played a good game, I wouldn’t say we had a great game. It was a great win, there is no question, but when you look down at the nitty-gritty, we had three turnovers and we had 100-plus yards in penalties because we had several large runs called back.”

Graham, which concludes its regular season next Friday at Narrows, is currently 3-5 against a schedule that included five higher-level non-district foes.

If a tough schedule is supposed to make a team stronger, apparently Graham is learning that on the run.

“I am proud of what our kids have done, we are 3-5, obviously we would like to have more wins than losses,” Williams said. “There are few teams anywhere in the state of Virginia that would parallel our schedule, we play five higher-division teams, I bet you wouldn’t find another team in the state that could say that...

“Our kids have put up a good fight. Of course we would have liked to have won more, but having lined up against some of the big boys like we have bodes well for us going into our district games.”

Williams isn’t complaining. He doesn’t plan to change that philosophy, which has long been a part of Graham football.

“It is good for us, we are on a two-year cycle so next year’s schedule will mirror this year’s, there won’t be any change in that regard,” Williams said. “I have done that at every level.

When I was at the University of Richmond we played (Virginia) twice, we played Vanderbilt, we played Arkansas, we played 1-A games and part of the reasoning behind that is preparing you for what is to come. When I was at Salem we played triple A teams and we were double A.

“The premise behind it I have been involved in before and it works. Our schedule is tough, but I think it is good for our program to have those games.”

—Contact Brian Woodson

at bwoodson@bdtonline.com