Friday night’s opening round of the Group AA Division 3 Region IV high school football playoff at Dwight Bogle Stadium could have offered the basis for a few rounds of ‘Name That Tune.’
When Knight punt returner Jack Woody raced 90-yards for a touhdown after a seemingly harmless Abingdon punt took a high bounce as it was rolling dead near the 10-yard line, Cave Spring went up 14-0 midway through first quarter. The band would have been in step by playing ‘Ain’t No Stopping Us Now.’
Later in the opening frame, Abingdon coughed up one of its five turnovers on the night, whereupon, “Oops….We’ve Done It Again’ may have been the appropriate selection.
The end result was a 45-0 romp by Cave Spring over the Falcons that advances the Knights to play 9-1 Richlands this Friday night in Blue Tornado country in far Southwest Virginia.
Cave Spring was clicking on all cylinders Friday night and it didn’t take long to realize that Abingdon was outmanned on this chilly evening.
Tight end Jordan Bryant got the Cave Spring scoring cavalcade started with a 19-yard touchdown reception from Knight quarterback Connor Baker early in the opening quarter. Daniel Seymour added the point-after, the first of six he would convert, to put Cave Spring up 7-0.
After Woody’s romp added the second score, Baker pushed in a 6-yard keeper to put the Knghts up 21-0 before the end of the first quarter.
Junior running back Alex Line, who led the Knight rushing attack with 66 yards on 13 carries, tacked on a pair of 3-yard touchdown runs in the second quarter for Cave Spring that sent the teams to the locker room with the Knights in the driver’s seat 35-0.
“We had great execution by our offense from start to finish,” Cave Spring head coach Tim Fulton said at midfield afterward. “Plus, we were able to convert turnovers to points. I was very pleased with our line play on both sides of the ball.”
By VHSL rule, the clock ran continuously in the second half with the 35-point slaughter rule in effect.
Senior wide receiver Jon Evans brought in a 21-yard touchdown toss from Baker that increased the Cave Spring lead to 42-0 after three quarters. Seymour, to get a little warmup for Richlands, added a 34-yard field goal in the final quarter after Cave Spring had featured all the reserves to give every player the experience of playoff football.
“It’s great to get every kid in the game.” Fulton noted. “You never know, but any player can be one play away from being in a situation that he has to be called on in a tight game.”
The starters cheered the defensive backups down the stretch from the sideline as they finished off the shutout. “Abingdon had a good team,” Woody said after the game. “We just wanted to keep putting up points. You never get comfortable.”
“We played an all-around game,” Baker, who threw for 125 yards on 8-of-12 efficiency, pointed out. “The points are great so you don’t let it slip away.”
“It’s a big win,” Bryant added after playing both ways as well as handling the punting duties for hospitalized Zac Foutz, who continues to recover from meningitis.
“Whew, my legs are tired,” Bryant laughed. “It’s always good to play like this. We needed to rebound from last week (the regular season loss to Hidden Valley). We’ll just keep pushing,
And, the final song for on the evening? ‘Turn Off the Lights, the Party’s Over’.
BILL TURNER game story/photo
