The twelve previous football encounters between Southwest County rivals Hidden Valley and Cave Spring have had a history of going to the wire.
There was no exception Friday night at Dwight Bogle Stadium, the home turf for both squads, as Hidden Valley held off a furious fourth quarter Cave Spring comeback to edge the Knights 24-21.
For Cave Spring, whose season came to an end with the loss, it was miscues that provided plenty of momentum for the Titans.
“Penalties, turnovers and giving up big plays, that’s about all I can say,” Cave Spring head coach Tim Fulton noted afterward.
Unfortunately for Cave Spring, those three things came at the most inopportune times.
None was bigger than late in the first quarter when Cave Spring drove to the Titan 4-yard line and faced fourth-and-one with the score still tied at 0.
The Knights sent out the field goal team, but called time out and decided to go for the first down. Hidden Valley managed to strip the ball on the plunge by Cave Spring standout running back Tyler Rice, dodging the bullet and taking over at the four.
“We believed we could get it,” Fulton said of passing up the chip-shot attempt.
On the next play, Titan quarterback Jonah Fitzgerald dropped back into the end zone and launched a bomb to wide receiver Ryan Mitchell, who caught the pass in stride before racing to the end zone with the 96-yard strike, putting Hidden Valley up 7-0.
Cave Spring responded on their next drive when senior Cody Amos caught a 14-yard touchdown pass from Knight quarterback Jacob Knight to knot things at 7.
Hidden Valley went up 14-7 when Fitzgerald hooked up with Jake Smiley on a 35-yard touchdown pass, and Cave Spring again answered when Knight found Matt Gliniecki on a 45-yard scoring strike that made it 14-14 with 4:14 left in the second quarter.
The Titans closed out the first half scoring when Michael Driscoll split the uprights on a 24-yard field goal with 1:33 left that sent the teams to the locker room with Hidden Valley ahead 17-14.
Riding the arm of Fitzgerald, Hidden Valley mounted an impressive drive in the third quarter that resulted in a 9-yard touchdown catch by Mitchell with 4:10 left, giving the Titans some cushion at 24-14.
Cave Spring still had plenty of punch and made things interesting in the final quarter.
The Knights converted on fourth down with a circus catch by sophomore Willie Harden midway through the final frame, before Harden scored from 12-yards out with 5:38 left to cut the Cave Spring deficit to 24-21.
On the next Hidden Valley possession, Titan head coach Scott Weaver twice rolled the dice on fourth down, converting both to keep the clock running.
“Cave Spring has played good defense all year and we didn’t want to have a punt blocked,” Weaver explained. “You can’t block the punt if we don’t punt.”
The Knights eventually held and had one final chance before Mitchell, who had 6 receptions for 163 yards on the offensive side, picked off a Cave Spring pass with just over a minute left to seal the Titan win.
Fitzgerald finished with 380 passing yards, completing 24-of-39, including 12 to Smiley. Knight finished with 239 aerial yards for Cave Spring.
“We’ve got a quarterback that is pretty good when he has protection,” Weaver added. “I’m proud of our team. They won three of their last four and now we’ll check the other games tonight and hopefully get in the playoffs. If that goes our way, seeds don’t matter. We proved that last year.”
Bill Turner
(photo to follow separately)
Thanks,
Bill Turner
Play By Play
The Roanoke Star