By BRIAN WOODSON

Bluefield Daily Telegraph

BLUEFIELD, Va. — In this fantasy football era of statistics gone wild, football still comes down the bottom line.

Winning.

“That is all that matters,” Graham senior Charlie Benfield said. “In the end you can look at player’s stats all you want, but it is really the team’s record that counts.”

While other players may have had more yards, more catches or more touchdowns, no player was part of a bigger win last week than the G-Men’s 19-14 victory over previously undefeated Fort Chiswell.

“I know the stats may not sound monstrous, but he can get monstrous stats against different opponents,” Graham head coach Mike Williams said. “I am telling you, those yards that he had, those were hard yards against a great football team.

“You can inflate your stats against weaker competition...but I would say 80 yards against Chiswell is about as good as 200 against a lot of other teams.”

Those 84 yards rushing — including 77-yard touchdown on the game’s second play — nine tackles, a game-preserving interception in the final seconds and another pass break-up — were enough to earn Benfield the Pocahontas Coal Association/Bluefield Daily Telegraph Player of the Week award.

“It is a team award,” Benfield said. “I did some stuff too, but my team did just as good as I did. This is great, I am honored to have the award.”

Benfield finished 173 all-purpose yards, including 70 yards in return yardage and another 20 after his interception.

“I think him winning the award is representative of the team effort involved,” Williams said. “I am happy for him that he got it, but I am also cognizant that is an honor for all of them, it is truly representative of the effort the team put forth.

“Of course he had a particularly strong game. He had the game-ending interception and he had the one offensive touchdown right there out of the chute.”

That win not only gave the G-Men a 5-4 record and a second straight win, but virtually assured Graham of a playoff berth.

“When you come into a game like Fort Chiswell like we did, you are just like ‘we have got to get stuff done,’” Benfield said. “It is a deal or no deal basically if we are getting in the playoffs or not so we had to do something and we did the best that we could do and came out victorious thankfully.”

Few, if anyone, other than the G-Men themselves gave them much hope against the 8-0 Pioneers, who had two 1,000 yard rushers, a huge line led by Coleman Thomas, and a defense that had allowed 11.6 points a game.

“We felt like nobody cared that we was even there because they didn’t think we had a chance against that team,” Benfield said. “We knew we had to come into that game, get the momentum quick, jump on them and win the football game, that was our plan.”

How about this quick? On the second play from scrimmage, Benfield burst through the line, cut to the left and dashed 77 yards for the touchdown and a lead the G-Men would never relinquish.

“My line just blocked great, they opened the hole for me and I seen it, I seen the cutback lanes and it was all speed from there,” said Benfield, who is the fastest G-Man, with a 40-yard dash time of 4.58 seconds. “It is a good feeling when you outrun somebody. I worked so hard for that speed and now I can finally do it.”

That proved to be Graham’s only offensive touchdown of the game, but the G-Men were able to take advantage of three turnovers and a blocked punt, moving the ball enough to run clock and kick two field goals, while keeping the Pioneers away from the end zone for most of the night.

“That is great, that is our game plan,” Benfield said. “Run the clock, run the ball, that is what we do, anytime we can do that it is really good...

“Our mentality was we have got to score again and we have to score again and again and again and again, as much as it takes to beat this team. We just wanted to beat that team with everything that we had.”

Defensively, the G-Men thrived, scoring a defensive touchdown on a fumble recovery and return for a score by Ethan Stirewalt, building the lead to 19-7 at the break.

“Our discussion (at halftime) was we play the rest of the game like we are coming out in the first quarter again, starting fresh and we just had to take it to them like we did the first half and that was our mentality,” said Benfield, who also had a pass breakup earlier in the game that nearly became another pick.

Fort Chiswell scored on its first possession of the second half, but that was it, with Dylan Cook recovering a fumble at the goal line in the fourth quarter that stopped a potential score, and sent the G-Men driving the other way.

“We were thinking we have to have a turnover,” Benfield said. “We have to turn the ball over and go down and score again to seal the deal, that is what we had to do.”

When the Pioneers did get the ball back deep in their territory with just over two minutes left, Benfield — taking the advice of former Graham standout Cody Hatfield — put the finishing touches on the upset by picking off a pass by Brett Mabry deep in Graham territory in the final seconds.

“My mentality the whole drive was ‘pick, pick, pick’ because we all knew they was throwing the ball, we just didn’t know where to,” Benfield said. “We all had to settle down, play our coverage and hope for the best that would happen and that is what we did.”

Benfield read the eyes of Mabry, and realized the ball was coming toward the tight end.

“I seen him and I was like ‘he is looking at him, it is in my hands,’” Benfield said. “I took off running to that tight end and just jumped in front of him. It was the greatest feeling ever.”

Benfield has been a key cog for Graham in each of the last two seasons. He was an All-Mountain Empire District selection as a receiver and defensive back as a junior, and has remained at cornerback this year, recording three interceptions and 48 tackles.

“He is a good physical blocker out there, he had a strong offseason, really improved his four-lift total significantly, added good body weight,” Williams said. “I guess where we are a little thinner at tailback this season we moved him over to tailback from receiver and he has been a pleasant surprise for us.”

That move has led to Benfield being second to Cook with 810 yards and eight touchdowns, along with seven catches for 130 yards and another score.

No wonder Benfield, who wants to play college football, isn’t sure whether he would want to play offense or defense at the next level. Why not both?

“I am a hitter, I like defense, but I love scoring too,” he said. “I love running the ball, catching the ball, whatever. When you go playing both ways your whole life, it is a hard decision.”

Graham returns to the gridiron on Friday to conclude its regular season at Narrows, continuing what Benfield hopes is a long win streak that doesn’t end anytime soon. Or, at all.

“Going into Narrows we have to be like we are playing any other team for playoffs,” Benfield said. “Since before Fort Chiswell our team said we had to be 7-0 to win state and that is what we have to do.

“We have got to play Narrows like we played Fort Chiswell, we have to play the team after that like we played Fort Chiswell and so on. That is the way it has got to go.

“Keep the wins up and the losses down, that is the way we have got to do it.”

—Contact Brian Woodson at bwoodson@bdtonline.com

Player of Week Honorable mention

Bland County (56-8 loss to Galax): Dylan Walker, 20-116, 1 td (61).

Bluefield (60-14 win over James Monroe): D.J. Stewart 6-76, 2 td (10, 27; Corey Coppola 4-58, 2 td (1, 44); Carlos Reed 4-78 1 td (82); R.J. Bourne 6-7-91 yards pass, 1 td run (4).

Giles (42-8 win over Floyd County): Brett Whitlow, Averaged 10 yards per carry, 1 td (49) / 6 extra point kicks; Brian Mann, 2 td rush (1, 17) / 1 td pass (19).

Graham (19-14 win over Fort Chiswell): Ethan Stirewalt, 9 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recover returned for TD; Ben Meade, freshman quarter, 24 yards passing, 13 yards rushing, 2 key late first downs, started both ways, has never lost a game as a starting quarterback since little league, won every game in middle school as well); Dylan Cook, 14-66 rush, fumble recovery on defense.

Haysi (52-7 win over Harlan): Jeffrey Bowen, 13-323, 6 td (71, 54, 44, 73, 11, 7); Tanner O’Quinn, 5-102, 1 td (47) catch / 1 td run (9).

Honaker (47-6 win over Grundy): Casey Dye, 2 td rush (1, 34) / 2 td pass (9, 28); Avin Parrott, 2 int on defense; Chase Johnson, 8 tackles, 2 sacks, 1 in; Hayden Horn, 11 tackles.

Hurley (50-12 win over Phelps: Nick Gibson, 9-65, 2 td rush / 2 td pass.

James Monroe (60-14 loss to Bluefield) Reed McNeer, 40 yards pass, 1 td (22).

Montcalm (15-0 win over Hannan): Dakota Lanter, 13-66 rush 1 td (20) / int on defense; Colton Egner, 12-42 rush, 1 td (13); Jason Grose, 12-56 rush; Brady Brown, safety, tackled QB in end zone.

Narrows (55-22 loss to Grayson County): Joe Hall, 8-16, 170 yards pass, 2 td (23, 68).

Richlands (41-10 win over Lebanon): River Michaels, 11-12, 174 yards pass / 51 yards rush, 2 td (1, 1); Colton Staten, 21-184 rush, 1 td (16); Griffin McCauley, 113 yards rush, 2 td (10, 14).

River View (15-6 win over Lincoln County): Joseph McClanahan, int return for TD (65) / 2-95 catch, 1 td (93); Jordan Wilson, 25-135 rush; Michael Price, 8-10, 145, 1 td (93) pass; Jeremy Crigger, 22 field goal (first in school history, first in recent memory for Iaeger-Big Creek).

Summers County (30-8 over Richwood): T.J. Smith, 18-151 1 td rush (4) / 5-153 receiving, 2 td (4, 50); Matt Ryan, 2 td passes (4, 50); Erik Lindsay, 60 yard fumble recovery for TD.

Tazewell (43-40 loss to Abingdon): Nick Blankenship, 10-105, 2 td rush (49, 1); Jacob McReynolds, 2 td rush (31, 1); Malik Davis, 178 yards pass, 1 td (42) / 53 rush yards, 1 td (2).

Wyoming East (42-14 win over Independence): Jacob Summe, 8-84, 3 td (19, 35, 1); Aaron Griffith, 5-58 rush 1 td (53) / 5-10, 58, 1 td pass (41)l Christian Hedinger, 3-46 1 td catch (41).

2013 Winners

Week 1: R.J. Bourne, Bluefield

Week 2: Tahj Sho-Johnson, Princeton

Week 3: Rodney Perdue, Narrows

Week 4: LaQuell Martin, Mount View

Week 5: Hunter Moses, PikeView

Week 6: Dillion Bailey, Hurley

Week 7: Brett Whitlow, Giles

Week 8: Jay Palmer, Princeton

Week 9: Nick Blankenship, Tazewell

Week 10: Charlie Benfield, Graham