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October 11, 2008

Raiders wrap up WRAC crown

By Justin Albers

CHARLOTTESVILLE — Shenandoah football coach Scott Widner told his players to take it one game at a time before the season started.

They’ve listened.

The Raiders earned the White River Athletic Conference championship by defeating Eastern Hancock 39-13 on the road Friday night.

“We just wanted to do it for these seniors,” the first-year coach said of the championship. “These kids haven’t won one outright, and it’s good for them. They deserve it. They’ve worked hard, worked hard all summer and they’ve done everything we’ve asked. It’s really good for them.”

Points were hard to come by early, but Shenandoah (7-1) broke it open early in the third quarter. Luke Hamm scored from four yards out with 8:26 remaining in the period before Zach Cole took it 70 yards for a touchdown less than two minutes later. Hamm was bottled up in the first half, but managed to gain 90 yards on 21 carries, giving him 1,224 yards on the season.

But Cole was one of the biggest stories of the night. He carried the ball nine times, piling up 160 yards and two touchdowns in the process. The Raiders gained an astounding 368 yards.

“They did a good job of shutting him (Hamm) down; I think that was probably their goal as I’m sure it’s everybody’s,” Widner said. “He knew that things were going to start opening up for him as the game went along. He always runs hard, and he’s been a fun kid to coach and be around. We’re going to need a lot of good things from him here down the stretch.”

Penalties and takeaways plagued Eastern Hancock throughout the second half and quickly took the Royals out of the game. Three Royals’ turnovers led to 19 Shenandoah points and sucked the life right out of the home crowd.

“We felt if we came out in the second half and executed we were going to be right in this game,” Eastern Hancock coach Mark Reddy said. “We talked about how we wanted to start the second half, and it was the exact opposite of what we said.”

Even sophomore quarterback Zach York had it going late in the game. York made few mistakes and finished 12-of-15 passing for 178 yards and a score. He hooked up with senior receiver Cory Criswell eight times for 120 yards as he repeatedly found an open spot in the defense.

The Raiders eliminated any kind of advantage Eastern Hancock would have gained from its homecoming festivities by marching it down the field on the game’s opening drive. Shenandoah took nearly nine minutes off the clock as it moved the ball 75 yards in 17 plays to grab the momentum.

Fourteen of the 17 plays were on the ground and seven of them went for five yards or more. Cole took the ball on a reverse — the third end around of the drive — and ran nine yards untouched into the end zone.

The key play of the drive came on a 4th-and-3 from the Royals’ 15-yard line. Shenandoah senior Tyler Pugsley was tripped up at the line of scrimmage, but used his hand to push off the ground and keep him up, eventually gaining five yards and a first down. The Raiders held a slight 7-0 advantage at the half.

“We just execute; we just gotta do stuff right and take care of the ball,” Widner said. “That’s all we did. That’s what we talk about a lot, just doing your job, and we did that. When we execute right, we’re a pretty good football team.”

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