The Shadow
Warm Springs, Va– Few coaches could ever hope to begin a season with three straight wins. No coach imagines that they will completely dominate all aspects of those games allowing opponents to only score six points combined. “Well,” there is no need for coach Jake Phillips to pinch himself because he is not dreaming. There was hardly an empty seat to be found, and the parking lots were completely full. It seems everyone in Bath County has heard the news. Bath’s taking no prisoners this season as the Chargers scored their third win in a row Friday night, making short work of the Richwood Lumberjacks 56-0.
Bath’s offense took the field first after a short kick off by the Lumberjacks gave them decent field position. The Chargers (3-0) wasted no time scoring after Wyatt Campbell ran the ball in from 36 yards out and giving his team an early 7-0 lead. Bath County’s defense showed they were not going to be outdone by playing hard nose in your face football. After three plays for negative yards left Richwood in a long fourth down situation, Braiden Mabe ran in like a man possessed and blocked the punt giving the Chargers excellent field position. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t be able to capitalize on Mabe’s gift.
After a penalty and a bad snap, the Charger offense found themselves in the only long yardage hole they would be in the whole night. After punting, the Charger defense bailed them out by making the Lumberjacks punt after only three plays on offense. Superman Campbell would reward the defenses’ hard work with seven more points after he broke free on a 23-yard run for a touchdown giving the Chargers a 14-0 lead. Throughout the entire game, Richwood found first downs exceedingly rare, usually punting to Bath after one four-down series. Only two minutes after running it in for a TD, Wyatt Campbell decided to throw for one finding Luke Turner in the endzone and putting his Chargers up 21-0. Two plays later, Richwood turned the ball over, fumbling the ball on the 20-yard line and giving the Chargers excellent field position. Bath did not wait long in making the Lumberjacks pay for their mistake when Ethan Bryant found the endzone on a 6-yard run up the middle. But Bath’s first half scoring wasn’t done yet as they scored two more times. Once on a pass to Mabe and once when a punt was run back 48 yards to make it 49-0 when the halftime whistle blew.
The second half highlighted more of what was seen in the first, except the Lumberjacks did produce a few first downs and found some success running the ball. Bath’s special teams deserve a lot of praise coming up big on punts and getting back their own kickoffs. Bath played a great game and stayed in total control the entire time. They improved to three wins and no losses. The Chargers travel to Meadow Bridge, West Virginia next Friday, September 20th at 7:00 to face off against the 2-0 Wildcats.
