The title of a story/article could indicate so much without diving into detail.
With that said, last night, the Alleghany Mountaineers were handed a 36 point loss to the Radford Bobcats.
The final score, Bobcats 42, Mountaineers 6.
Without diving into the story, you would think this game got away from the Mountaineers.
While the scoreboard says so, the play on the field was much different.
Now, here’s where we dive into the story.
Despite a 36-point loss, had a few plays gone right for the Mountaineers, the score and result may have been much different.
While defense struggled for the Mountaineers last night, the offense hung in there for the most part despite what the scoreboard said.
On the teams first drive of the game, the Mountaineers got into Bobcats territory.
After a 16-yard kickoff return from Dalton Griffith, the Mountaineers grabbed a 15-yard completed pass from Kole Caldwell to Maddox Crance for a first down.
Two plays later, Caldwell found Griffith for 12 yards and another first down for the Mountaineers.
With a fresh set of downs and in Bobcats territory on the 44 yard line, the Mountaineers were showing promise to score.
On first down, Caldwell completed a pass to Lucas Rogers for a one yard loss.
Unfortunately the drive would come to a vault a few plays later on back to back incomplete passes.
On what was a promising drive, the Mountaineers turned the ball over on downs.
One minute, 18 seconds later, quarterback Marcell Baylor of the Bobcats found Darius Wesley-Brubeck for a 50 yard touchdown pass. The touchdown was followed by a made extra point to put the Bobcats in front 7-0.
Going back to diving into the story, had the Mountaineers converted on fourth down on their first drive, who knows if the Bobcats get that rushing touchdown. But the momentum carried over for them from their defensive stop.
Now trailing 7-0, the Mountaineers needed to answer.
Unfortunately, the team was completely taken off guard as the Bobcats recovered their onside kick.
After needing only four plays for a score on their first drive, the Bobcats after recovering the onside kick, only needed 23 seconds and two plays for their next score.
Baylor, on the second play of the drive, following an incomplete pass, ran a 49 yard quarterback keeper for the score. Following the made extra point, the Mountaineers found themselves trailing 14-0.
Another play the outcome or even the landscape of the game could of changed, the onside kick.
Now trailing by two scores, the Mountaineers had a second great drive of the game resulting with the same outcome as the first, with a turnover on downs.
The team grabbed three first downs on the drive, highlighted by 20 yards passing on the drive by Caldwell.
The drive ended on Bobcats territory when the team could no convert on a 4th-and-three play as Dalton Griffith was stopped at the line of scrimmage.
Six plays later, the Bobcats found the endzone on a Baylor 60 yard pass to Wesley-Brubeck for the second time. Following the made extra point, the Mountaineers found themselves now down 21-0.
How a few plays could of changed the course of the game had they gone the Mountaineers way.
The Mountaineers went three-and-out on the teams next drive.
A few plays later, the Bobcats were back in the endzone, this time on a 15 yard rushing touchdown from Tyrel Dobson. It was the first of three rushing touchdowns from Dobson.
With the team now trailing 28-0, on the next drive for the Mountaineers, the team for the third time drove into Bobcats territory, but found themselves unsuccessful on the drive.
Despite not scoring on the drive, the drive was highlighted by Waylon Campbell who had a total of 22 yards of offense (11 yards rushing and 11 yards receiving).
Now entering their fifth drive of the game, the Bobcats made it a perfect 5-for-5 as Dobson found the endzone from 16 yards out for his second score.
It was 35-0 at halftime, but as dive into the story, a few plays that sway differently for the Mountaineers, the half could of changed the course.
In the second half, with a running clock (because of the total difference of points), the Bobcats scored on their first drive with a three yard rushing touchdown from Dobson once again.
Eli Entsminger took over for Caldwell at quarterback after he left the game with an injury.
Entsminger did lead the Mountaineers in the fourth quarter with their lone scoring drive of the game when he connected with Hayden Knighton from seven yards out.
The team failed on a two-point try to keep the game at 42-6.
One other highlight from the scoring drive came on an 50 yards pass from Entsminger to Hunter Knighton.
The Bobcats ran the clock out on the final drive of the game.
So long story short, although the Mountaineers lost by 36, the team never gave up and kept the fight going.
Richmond Spiders linebacker and Covington High School alum, Tyler Dressler said to me in an interview a few weeks ago that you find yourself thinking about one or two plays that you wish could change from a game. In this case for the Mountaineers, the first drive turnover on downs, the onside kick the Bobcats converted, and the Mountaineers second offensive drive, are those plays that could keep you up all night thinking about.
Despite leaving the game with an injury, Caldwell finished the game with 8-for-14 for 46 yards passing.
Campbell contributed with 10 rushes for 21 yards for the Mountaineers, including two receptions for 14 yards.
For the Bobcats, it was quite the first half performance for Baylor who saw only a few plays on offense in the second half.
Baylor finished the game with 221 yards of total offense. He had 125 passing yards and 96 rushing yards to go along with three touchdowns (two passing, one rushing).
It was also quite the night for running back Dobson who not only rushed for three touchdowns, but also at halftime was named the Radford High School Homecoming King.
In the loss, the Mountaineers dropped to 1-3. The team will look to snap their three-game losing streak next Friday at home when they host James River (Buchanan).
Team/Quarter/Final
AHS 0 0 0 6 6
RHS 14 21 7 0 42
AHS Team Stats
Pass Yds: 103
Rush Yds: 81
Kick Return Yds: 68
Punt Return Yds: /
Total Offense: 249
First Downs: 10
Flags: 5
Total Plays: 45
RHS Team Stats
Pass Yds: 125
Rush Yds: 270
Kick Return Yds: /
Punt Return Yds: /
Total Offense: 395
First Downs: 8
Flags: 7
Total Plays: 34
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