It was highlighted to be the game of the week.
The Radford Bobcats (6-0) headed to the Alleghany Highlands to kickoff Three Rivers District play against the Alleghany Mountaineers (4-2).
Despite a slow start in which the Bobcats found themselves in a 13-0 hole after the first quarter, the team overcame their early wounds to remain unbeaten following a 58-21 victory at Mountaineer Field on Thursday.
The Mountaineers who have been impressive all season long even in their two losses, had the Bobcats backs against the walls early on.
Garrett Via, who has been a defensive nightmare all season long, opened the scoring in the first quarter with a 1yd rushing touchdown. Followed by a made extra point, the Mountaineers took a 7-0 lead.
After last years 42-6 loss to the Bobcats, the Mountaineers already had the unbeaten Bobcats looking for answers on defense.
With under three minutes to go in the first quarter, Via once again found the end zone this time from 27 yards out to give the Mountaineers a double digit lead. The extra point was blocked by the Bobcats.
As the second quarter started, the Bobcats were facing a 13-0 deficit, while Mountaineers were closing in on adding more points to the scoreboard. However, the Bobcats turned the game around on one play.
After having the ball on the one yard line, the Mountaineers would go backwards with a four yard loss on their first play on the quarter. With the ball now on the five yard line, Eli Enstminger, looking for Via in the end zone, would be picked off by TJ Aursby.
Three plays later, Landon Clark found Marcell Baylor for a 53 yard touchdown pass. Followed by a made extra point, the Bobcats who appeared to be heading for a three score deficit, were now with one one score of the Mountaineers.
The interception that led to the Bobcats touchdown took all the momentum away from the Mountaineers and shifted tides to them.
The Bobcats would score three more touchdowns in the second quarter to take a 28-13 halftime lead.
The Mountaineers would not recover from the Bobcats big second quarter as they added 23 more points to the scoreboard in the third quarter while shutting out the Mountaineers to take a 51-13 lead into the fourth quarter.
At the start of the fourth quarter, Dalton Griffith would end the Mountaineers scoring drought by scoring from 13 yards out. The touchdown ended the Bobcats scoring streak of 51 unanswered points.
Clark had a big game for the Bobcats as he completed 14 of his 16 pass attempts to go along with 333 passing yards and five touchdowns. Meanwhile, Baylor, who had the 53 yard receiving touchdown to open the scoring for the Bobcats, finished with three catches for 113 yards. Baylor was an issue for the Mountaineers last season as well where he had two touchdown passes and one rushing touchdown.
Besides Baylor, the Bobcats also grabbed big performances from their receiving core from Parker Prioleau who had six receptions for 88 yards along with a touchdown, and from Max Kanipe who had two touchdowns off of three catches for 79 yards. In the ground attack, David Woodward had 57 yards rushing and one score.
The Mountaineers committed six turnovers in the loss.
It was another big game for Via who added two scores to his resume this season, along with 131 yard off of 22 carries. With his two touchdowns against the Bobcats, Via is now up to 17 rushing touchdowns on the season, which surpassed Bryan Hamm (1986) for the second most ever in a single season in Alleghany High School history. Via is only six rushing touchdowns away from tying Terrell Givens who rushed for 23 touchdowns in 2000. Via’s two scores against the Bobcats, also surpassed Randall Allen, for the fourth most rushing touchdowns in AHS school history with 24 career rushing scores. With four games to go, Via has a chance to break all sorts of records.
The Mountaineers also grabbed production from Griffith who scored a touchdown, as well as from Entsminger who completed nine of his 13 passes.
Despite the loss, the Mountaineers moved the ball well against a very talented Bobcats team.
The Mountaineers will look to bounce back this Friday when they are on the road against the James River Knights (2-3) who are coming off of a 19-0 loss to Glenvar this past Friday night.
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Thursday, September 29th, 2022
Bobcats at Mountaineers
Team Pts/Qtr Total
RHS 0 28 23 7 58
AHS 13 0 0 8 21
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