Unbeaten Richlands awaits winless Cougars

By MIKE DAVIS

for the Daily Telegraph

RICHLANDS, Va. — The Blue Tornado football program has built success on taking one week at a time and Richlands is treating tonight’s meeting with Patrick County as the most important game of the season.

Richlands is unbeaten in their first four games of the season while the Cougars have yet to win a game. Patrick County has scored only seven points this season and have allowed 128 points.

“We’ve told our kids that we go one week at a time,” Richlands head coach Greg Mance said. “And you can’t overlook anybody. Patrick County has some good size up front and they’re young, I think they’re juniors.

“But, they’re 6-foot-1 and weigh 260 or 270 pounds. And they have some backs that run the ball really well.”

Coming out of the backfield for the Blues will be senior Devon Johnson who rushed for 199 yards on 23 carries last week against Pulaski in his most productive output this season. He accounted for three touchdowns last week including a pair of long 65 and 66-yard runs and caught a Reece Strong pass for a 54-yard touchdown.

“The offensive line opened up some holes for Devon to run through,” Mance said. “Devon did some things on his own, but the offensive line got off the ball. They ran their feet and they had people seven and eight yards down the field. They did a good job in pass protection and gave Reece time to throw the ball.

“Devon is a tremendous football player and we’ve been waiting on this every game. He should be rushing 200 yards per game if he gets 20 carries. He’s going to make some runs because he’s too big and too explosive and he hard to tackle.

“We just have to get him through the initial line of scrimmage and the offensive line did a great job Friday night.”

Calling the signals out of the backfield, Strong has 10 touchdowns this season with seven passing and three rushing including one of each last week against the Cougars. He completed 7-of-11 passes for 124 yards. In addition, he handles all the kicking duties for the Blues with at least one field goal in each of their first four games.

“The thing about Reece is he’s been a four-year starter,” Mance said. “He the all-time leading points scorer in school history and he’s got the longest field goal in school history. He a tremendous kicker and he does a great job kicking and punting the ball.

“We’ve only punted the ball four times this season, but he hangs it up there and he makes a difference. In a close ballgame, you can count on Reece when the chips are down.”

Defensively, the Tornado has a few young starters shoring up the holes. According to Mance though, they’re beginning to come into their own.

“Sam Lawson and Corbin King are doing a great job at end and Frank Taylor — at outside linebacker — has really stepped up. He’s a sophomore and he’s starting this week and we like what he did against Graham.

“We’ve moved some people around in the secondary. Michael Horton will move to safety and Todd McGlothlin is going to play a little corner this week.”

With all the new looks and faces on defense, Mance credits the kids and their work ethic for their ability to make plays with so little game experience.

“The kids work hard and it’s a reflection on the great job the assistant coaches do,” Mance said. “The young kids are getting better each week. Taylor Wade and Josh Hess are tremendous football players and they’re steady every night. But, James England and Donny Dye are really coming on along with Jeremy McGlothlin and Cody Perdue.

“Dustin Duggan is coming around at tight end. He made great catch last week against Pulaski and Josh Compton is a pleasant surprise.”

“He’s got two interceptions from the linebacker, a fumble recovery and four or five tackles for a loss he a tremendous football player.”

Patrick County isn’t known for using a passing attack and the Tornado secondary will have to stay on their toes for the speed coming out of the backfield.

“They don’t throw the ball well,” Mance said. “They’ll run the double wing and they’re going to try to shorten the game and we need to be better on defense. We were disappointed in our technique last week (against Pulaksi County) and we’ve got to improve in that this week.

“The kids are going to have to understand that we have to do our technique first and play football and everything starts working out.”

Richlands will have one more home game after tonight’s contest when they return home to play Abingdon on Oct. 14 after three consecutive away games.