Narrows in way of Graham hopes

By BRIAN WOODSON

Bluefield Daily Telegraph

BLUEFIELD, Va. — Last week’s 10-7 win at Fort Chiswell may have secured a spot in the playoffs for the Graham G-Men.

A loss to winless Narrows could ruin those dreams. Mike Williams has let his G-Men know it too.

“I said this before the season and it is still true today and I believe it, any team on our schedule we have the ability to beat, and any team on our schedule has the ability to beat us,” said Williams, who is in his first season at Graham. “We are not so good that we can just show up and they are going to fall over and lose.”

Graham (4-5) has won two straight since a 2-5 start to move into playoff consideration. They’ll meet the Green Wave (0-9), which is believed to be the Mountain Empire District team that the G-Men had played on the gridiron before this season.

That was way back in 1986-87, with the G-Men winning both.

History no longer matters, the present does. The G-Men would like nothing better than to win a third game in a row heading into a postseason berth. Not a bad turnaround for a team that was 1-9 last season.

“I am excited for them, they have put themselves in a position where their games matter and that is fun for a player,” Williams said. “They have done that for themselves so they have put themselves in a position where playing Fort Chiswell was a big game, not just another game.

“They put themselves in a position where playing Narrows is not just the last game of the season, but it is a big game.”

Very big. Graham used a solid defensive effort, smart football with just one turnover and fewer penalties, and a Samuel Stowers field goal and fourth quarter touchdown reception from Gray Baker to Spencer Sheets to secure the win.

“The defense played well, they played well down the stretch, they won the game in the fourth when we needed them to, even under tough circumstances with the ball in our own territory so they played great,” Williams said. “On offense you would like to score more than 10, but we feel like we left a lot of points on the board.

“We had the ball inside the 15 four times and had three points to show for it...If things go a certain way you have got 28, instead you have got 3 so we feel like we left a lot of points on the board.”

That was Graham’s third win this season — along with Tazewell and Marion — where the G-Men had to make plays in the fourth quarter to pull out the win.

“We’ve got three fourth quarter wins which says a lot for the fight and character of our team,” Williams said. “We are real excited, that was a big win for us, but the reality is it only remains a big win if we win this week.

“If we don’t play well this week and lose this one all that will be forgotten.”

Narrows has had a pair of close calls this season, a 28-19 loss at Craig County and a 16-8 defeat to Bland County. They have struggled offensively, having twice reached double figures (19 and 12 vs. Giles), and have allowed 42 or more points in five of the last six games.

“Narrows is a good team, they have got more seniors than us, we have seen them on film and they run the football well,” Williams said. “Sure they haven’t won a game, but they had two tight games that could have went their way.

“They are going to be seasoned. You go in and take a group like this lightly which historically has some strong teams, you will walk out of there with a loss. We are not taking these guys lightly, we know we are going to have to play a sharp game to come out on top.”

Williams knows that the Green Wave wants to run the football, led by Wyatt Robertson and Adrian Parcell behind an offensive line paced by Cody Cumbee and Cody Ludwig. They’re led at quarterback by Joe Hall.

“We know they can run the football, they have two games that easily could have went their way and they just didn’t for various reasons,” Williams said. “Their run game is tough, stopping that will be paramount to the outcome of the game certainly.”

Balance best describes Graham offense with five players have rushed for anywhere from 453 (Sheets) to 183 (Gabe Hurt) yards. Sheets and Baker have combined to throw for 697 yards and three scores, with Hurt catching 18 passes for 162 yards.

More importantly, the G-Men had just one second half turnover and few costly penalties against Fort Chiswell, both of which were pleasing to Williams.

“I told the kids at halftime, we focused all week on no dumb penalties and no turnovers and we went into half with no dumb penalties and no dumb turnovers so we were in the ball game,” he said. “I feel like if we can do that we can play with anybody and those are really self-defeating things when you hit people behind the ball and get those 15 yards.

“That is self-defeating, when you turn the ball over three times you make it hard on yourself to win. We had no self-defeating actions in the first half against Chiswell which kept us in the game and I really we feel like if we can keep the game tight down to the finish then we have a pretty good shot against anybody.”

Defensively, the G-Men are equally balanced, led by Lamont Edwards with 88 tackles, nine tackles for loss and four forced fumbles. The 5-foot-5 Hurt and Cody Hatfield combined for seven pass breakups in last week’s win over Fort Chiswell.

“We had great coverage, some people try to pick on Gabe because he is shorter, but he is our best cover guy and he has stepped up all season long against taller receivers,” said Williams, who expects Galax to beat Grayson County tonight to claim the MED championship in a matchup of undefeated clubs. “He had four pass breakups Friday night, at the end of the game they were going at him and every play he stopped it. He had some great pass breakups for us and Cody had several as well on that side of the ball.”

Graham lost three straight games before its current two-game win streak, but the G-Men are living up the challenge made by Williams prior to the 31-0 win two weeks ago over Bland County.

“We can rip through these next three games and storm into the playoffs or we can have self-defeating actions and play selfish football and finish 2-8 or 3-7 or whatever our record would be,” Williams said. “The verdict is still out, but it looks like they have made the decision that we prefer to storm into the playoffs.”

While Williams will be excited if the G-Men do return to the postseason after a one-year hiatus, Graham football still has more goals to reach.

“That is something every team strives for from back in August so that has been a focal point,” Williams said. “That is something we have talked about, but we also fully aware that doesn’t happen without a good strong finish We are on our way there, but we are not there yet...

“We are real pleased so far, we have still got things to do, we have not arrived there yet, and we don’t feel accomplished, we still have things we hope to achieve. Even at 5-5 and in the playoffs, that is not the goal or the outcome so we still feel like we have unfinished business.”

—Contact Brian Woodson

at bwoodson@bdtonline.com