Christiansburg made its second trip in as many weeks to Dwight Bogle Stadium Friday night. The Blue Demons made it clear they knew their way around.
In a dominating performance fueled by the Blue Demon defensive and offensive lines, Christiansburg rolled to the 49-7 win in a contest that never required a single Blue Demon punt.
“We jumped out to the quick 17-0 lead, and we basically felt that was the ball game,” Christiansburg head coach Tim Cromer noted at midfield afterward. “We are very physical on both sides of the ball and our lines played exceptionally well tonight.”
Cave Spring had stunned the Blue Demons on this same field two years ago when Christiansburg came to town ranked number-one in the Group AA rankings. That feat was not lost in the preparation.
“We were very aware of that game and the fact that Cave Spring came from behind to beat us 37-24 at our place last year,” Cromer said. “We talked about it to the kids and the coaches. Cave Spring is always a challenge.”
Christiansburg wasted little time in putting points on the board. After Cave Spring went three-and-out after receiving the opening kickoff, Christiansburg marched down the field exclusively with running plays to score on Tanner Reed’s short scamper for a 7-0 lead. Cave Spring was moving the ball on the subsequent possession before the Knights came up short on a fourth down trick play that turned the ball over. Two plays later Kory Hendricks raced 35 yards for another Blue Demon score that put Christiansburg up 14-0. Another Blue Demon drive got inside the Cave Spring ten, but a 15-yard penalty sidetracked the effort, forcing Christiansburg to settle for a 29-yard Jake Hamley field goal and 17-0 advantage.
Cave Spring made its first move toward a comeback when quarterback Alex Emery hit Zac Foutz on a 25-yard touchdown strike with 5:02 left in the first half. Any designs on a rally were short-lived when Hamley brought in a 68-yard scoring pass with 1:28 left and, after a Knight turnover, Christiansburg tacked on a score in the final seconds on a Logan Adkins plunge that sent the teams to the locker room with the Blue Demons comfortably in control 32-7.
Christiansburg added two TDs in the third quarter to push their lead to 46-7 with 2:29 left, sending the game clock to continuous running mode the rest of the way. Hamley added a 3-pointer in the fourth.
“They’re big, fast and execute well,” Cave Spring head coach Tim Fulton pointed out of Christiansburg afterward. “We’ve taken on 2 very good opponents back-to-back. We moved the ball tonight, but didn’t score. We need to make something happen. We’ll look at the good things from this game and move forward.”
