By RODNEY YOUNG
NRVSports.net
Playing on a pleasant Friday night the homestanding Bobcats used their passing game to defeat the visiting Appomattox Raiders, 44-7.
Radford quarterback Peyton Dobbins threw for 236 yards and tossed five touchdowns. He threw two scoring passes to Demarieh Brown, and one each to Jaden Hendricks, Colton Garner- Rollins and Trenton Carter.
The Bobcats got on the board with 5:49 remaining in the opening quarter with Dobbins hitting Brown on a 33-yard strike. Pace Prioleau would toss a two-point conversion pass to Luciano Pugliese for an 8-0 lead.
They would score again at the 10:46 mark of the second quarter as Sam Long would pick up a Raider fumble at the Appomattox 30 and rumble in for six. Louis Webster’s kick upped the lead to 15-0. On their next possession Dobbins would hit a wide open Brown for a 15-yard score and Webster’s kick had the score 22-0.
On fourth down Appomattox (6-5) would drop back to punt but the snap went over the punter’s head and Essiq Williams would down the punter in the endzone for a safety. Radford was up 24-0 as they had scored nine points in just one minute and six seconds.
The second half saw Radford receive the kickoff and on their second play Dobbins would hit Hendricks for a 47-yard touchdown pass with 11:11 on the clock, and make the score 31-0.
Radford (7-4) once again saw Appomattox snap the ball over their punter’s head and they would take over at the Raider 19. Dobbins would then hit Trenton Carter in stride on a crossing pattern for a 19-yard touchdown to go up 38-0.
The Bobcat defense would then stop the Raiders on fourth and one. Three plays later Dobbins this time would find Colton Garner- Rollins for a 42-yard catch and run for six, but their point after kick would be blocked leaving the score at 44-0, with 1:28 left in the third quarter with a running clock.
Appomattox’s Christopher Burch would return the kickoff 90 yards from their five to the Bobcat five. Two plays later with seven seconds showing backup quarterback Mon’Trevious Fitch would hit Xavier Moseley over the middle in the endzone for six, and Mark Aloese’s kick made the score 44-7 with just 17 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
The fourth quarter saw Radford use backup players and both teams would go scoreless.
“We may have played our best all-around game,” said Radford head coach Michael Crist. “We played with energy, intensity, confidence and we executed. They made some mistakes and we capitalized on them. Dobbins and our offensive line played well as did our defense.”
The Bobcat defense held the Raiders to just 48 total yards in the second half. The Radford offense racked up 283 yards total.
Radford advances to the region semi-final and travels next week to district foe Glenvar. Glenvar beat the Bobcats 35-0 at Glenvar back on October 17 in a regular season game. Kickoff is slated for Friday, November 21 at 7:00 pm.
Radford 8 16 20 0 -44
Appomattox 0 0 7 0 – 7
Rushing– Radford – Dobbins 8- minus (-17), Kimbrough 5-7, Carpenter 2-28, Dehart-Lewis 2-6, Sutherland 1-7, Prioleau 2-10, Appomattox – Waller 11-44, Fitch 8-30, Feguson 2-6, Haskins 2-1, Mann 2-4, Pollard 1-0
Passing – Radford – Dobbins- 14-20-1 Int.- 5 Tds.- 236 yds., Sutherland 1-2-0 ints,-0 Tds.- 6 yds., Appomattox – Mann – 8-13- 0 Ints,-0 tds.- 57 yds., Fitch – 2-7 – 0 ints,- 1 Td. – 17 yds.
Receptions – Radford – Hendricks 4-94, Rollins- 2-47, Carter 4-35,, Brown 3-55, Keister 1-6, Prioleau 1-5, Appomattox – Moseley 5-55, Johnson 2-12, C. Burch 1-4, Fitch 1-0, Frias 1-3
First downs – Radford 13, Appomattox 8
Fumbles-lost – Radford 0-0, Appomattox 5-4
Penalties – Radford – 3-35, Appomattox – 4-30
Total Yds.- Radford – 283, Appomattox- 159
Punts- avg. – Radford 3-34.0, Appomattox 2-33.0
Total TO’s– Radford 1, Appomattox 4
