It’s not unusual for the Cave Spring football team to have a scoring standout every game.
Friday night, to the dismay of the visiting Carroll County Cavaliers, the Knights produced two.
Combining for five total touchdowns, senior Ty Albritton and junior Tyler Rice were more than enough as Cave Spring rolled to 41-14 win over the visitors from Hillsville at Dwight Bogle Stadium.
It was the second trip to Bogle in as many weeks for Carroll County, and for the second straight week the Cavaliers had to play the role of the homecoming visitors.
“I love this place,” Carroll County head coach Eddie Sloss commented after the game. It may have been because the conditions of the artificial turf at Bogle were superior to the mud and puddles most area teams have endured the past two Fridays. Or, it may have been the result of seeing his team score a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter after being outscored 76-0 in the previous seven quarters in Southwest County.
“We played so hard tonight,” Sloss noted. “We just couldn’t get a break. But, we looked like a different team this week. These guys were ready to line up and compete. I’m proud of them because these guys want success.”
Cave Spring was on the score board with less than two minutes into the game. Albritton fielded a Carroll County punt at his own 28-yard line and returned it 48 yards to the Cavalier 24. On the next play Knight quarterback Alex Emery faked a pass and rolled into the end zone for a 7-0 lead.
Carroll County made an impressive showing on the ground on its next series, converting twice on fourth down and getting help by a Cave Spring pass interference that moved the chains into the red zone. But, the Cavs came up empty after a fumble at the 10.
Early in the second quarter Carroll County came up short when they rolled the dice again on fourth down and it took only two plays before Albritton caught a 4-yard TD toss from Emery to make it 14-0.
The Knights made it 21-0 after Rice intercepted a Cavalier pass on the next possession, and Rice took it to the end zone three plays later on a 24-yard run.
Albritton scored his second touchdown with 4:28 left in the quarter after he scooped up a Cavalier fumble on a friendly hop, taking it 40 yards to the house. The teams went to the halftime break with the Knights up 27-0.
Cave Spring made it 34-0 in the third on Rice’s second 24-yard scoring run, leaving the score one point short of continuous-running mode.
Carroll County finally got off the Bogle schneider in the fourth quarter on a Breenan Vaught 8-yard touchdown run and a Trace Davis 62-yard TD run later in the final frame.
Cave Spring settled the final margin in unintentional fashion with 1:40 left when Rice, looking to run out the clock with a push up the middle, found himself off to the races with a 76-yard scoring romp.
“On that last touchdown we just wanted to get a first down, fall down and end the game,” Cave Spring head coach Tim Fulton said afterward.
“I was a little nervous in the first quarter,” Fulton added. “”I was worried about them moving the ball on us.They had a nice drive down the field that ate the clock. but we just had some things break our way. Carroll County is not a bad football team.”
Albritton was the unfamiliar center of the post-game interviews. “I’m not used to this,” the senior admitted with a chuckle.
“I liked that punt return,” he said of his favorite of the multi-faceted contributions. “We started off slow, but then it was pass and run. Plus, our defense was solid.:”
“Our game plan was to run it early, then spread them out and throw the ball,” Fulton pointed out..
Bill Turner
