Friday, October 26, 2012

Defense Rules Night as Lee-Davis Tops Hanover....

With six, count them, six red zone opportunities in a row from late in the second quarter to late in the fourth, Hanover expects to score more than six total points.

But tonight, that's exactly what happened.

A bad snap before halftime ended a drive at the Lee-Davis 1.  An early second half drive ended when Sam Rogers stepped out of bounds at the 16 before releasing a pass.

In the end, Rogers found the end zone once with 5:29 left in the game to cut a 10-0 Lee-Davis lead to four.  They opted to go for two rather than kick the extra point, and, Lee-Davis' defense on special teams came up big, stopping L.J. Jones, forcing Hanover to play for the touchdown in their subsequent final drive.

While Rogers rushed for 65 yards and passed for 41 in his first game back at quarterback since finger surgery and L.J. Jones scampered for 153 yards, the Hawks were stopped when it mattered most, and Lee-Davis picked up a huge win for their Division 5 playoff hopes, 10-6 over Hanover on a rainy night in Mechanicsville.

The rain began 10 minutes before kickoff, catching many by surprise with its intensity, not a downpour, but not the "sprinkle" that was forecast.  It affected ball control throughout the game, especially in the first half, where Hanover backup QB Travis Barton, who got the start ahead of Rogers, had trouble handling shotgun snaps on multiple occasions.

Incredibly, for as many times as snaps and other plays were muffed, there were no turnovers in the game.  Lee-Davis was flagged just once, on a holding penalty that Hanover declined in order to get the football back on downs in the second half.

Chris Simpson "only" ran 28 times for 127 yards.  Coach Zac Hayden's decision early in the fourth quarter to begin a drive with Deshaun Rogers at quarterback instead of Brandon Sulser proved masterful, as the subsequent drive ended in Lee-Davis' only touchdown of the night, a 22-yard run around left end by Jordon Prentiss on a misdirection handoff.

Lee-Davis (3-2, 5-3) hosts Senior Night next Friday against Armstrong and take a giant step closer to clinching a Division 5 playoff berth with the victory.

Hanover (3-2, 6-2) will likely stay at #1 in Division 5 VHSL rider points, but its margin will be trimmed by Hopewell, Lee-Davis and Dinwiddie, all who won tonight.  Now the Hawks must regroup and hit the road to face Varina next Friday.

OTHER COUNTY GAMES:

Atlee went back and forth with Armstrong, surprisingly, for most of the first half before pulling away behind four more Morris Jackson rushing touchdowns, defeating the Wildcats 51-24 to move to 3-2, 5-3.  The Raiders face an almost must win situation next week when they travel to Highland Springs to battle the unbeaten Springers.

ATLEE AT HIGHLAND SPRINGS is our Game of the Week next Friday, 6:30pm on WHAN Radio!

Patrick Henry dominated J.R. Tucker to celebrate Homecoming 2012 with a 41-7 Colonial District victory.  The Patriots move to 3-2 in the Colonial, 3-5 overall, and welcomes Mills Godwin for Senior Night next Friday before going to Hermitage in two weeks for their season finale.  Hermitage defeated Mills Godwin tonight 46-10.

No comments: