Tornado shuts out Honaker

By ANTHONY STEVENS
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

September 01, 2007 01:08 am

— HONAKER, Va. — The trial run went fine — Richlands seemed to like the synthetic turf that will be installed at Ernie Hicks Stadium for next season. The Tornado debuted on the turf on Fuller Field at EMATS Stadium with an impressive 39-0 win over Honaker.
It was the 31st regular season win in a row and their second straight shutout to begin this season.
Richlands started very slowly, struggling with some early miscues. The Tornado took the opening kickoff and drove to the Honaker two. They tried to convert on a fourth-and-1 from the two but a bad snap over quarterback Austin Fuller’s head gave the ball to the Tigers.
Two interceptions by Honaker’s David Keene and Matt Shortridge added to Richlands’ early problems.
“Right now we’re pretty good on defense and offensively we really improved this week,” Richlands coach Greg Mance said. “We came in and made some big plays in the second quarter. We’re playing a lot more people than Honaker and kind of wore them down.”
Richlands scored their first touchdown just before the end of the first quarter when Romulo Fajardo intercepted Honaker quarterback Justin Hall and returned it 32-yards for a touchdown.
The score remained 6-0 until Drew Presnell intercepted Hall to give the Tornado the ball on the Honaker 46 with around 10 minutes to play in the first half.
“I had played a bad game up to that point,” said Presnell. “The defensive line got a good rush and I just dropped back into coverage and was able to go up and get it.”
With the turnover, Richlands made a change at quarterback, bringing junior Joel Elswick in to run the offense with Fuller moving to wide receiver. It quickly sparked the Tornado as the offense exploded. Richlands put four more touchdowns on the scoreboard in under five minutes.
“We’re going to play two quarterbacks,” said Mance. “Fuller is a great runner and passer and he was an all-state wide receiver (last year). When we moved him to receiver it kind of opened things up for us.”
Elswick connected with Shane Wicks on a 10-yard touchdown pass to begin the five-minute run. Honaker took the ensuing kickoff and elected to go on a fourth-and-1 from their on 31 but a quarterback keeper was unsuccessful turning the ball back over to Richlands on downs.
“We were already down two scores but you can always second guess yourself,” Honaker coach Doug Hubbard said. “I just wanted to show the kids that I had some confidence in them and try to get the defense off the field and get them some rest. If we would have made it I would have looked great, but it went the other way.”
The Blue Tornado scored in three plays when Ben Addison made a great catch in the end zone on a pass 17-yard pass from Elswick.
“We thought eventually we would catch a break and get things going,” Elswick said. “We’re always going to be a defensive type of team. The offense is confident they are not going to give up a lot of points.”
Richlands then recovered an on-side kick and scored in two plays on a 41-yard rush by Kheven Schweingruber. The Tornado then recovered a Honaker fumble and scored in three plays on a 20-yard run by Austin Cordle. They added their final touchdown early in the third quarter on a one-yard run by Schweingruber.
Elswick was 8-of-10 passing with two touchdowns for Richlands. Schweingruber led the rushing attack with 107 yards on 10 carries with the two touchdowns. Honaker was led by Hall with 34 yards rushing. The Tigers were without the services of tailback-linebacker Logan Ball who was injured in the loss to Lebanon last week.
The Tigers will travel to Twin Valley for their first Black Diamond District game next week, while Richlands will travel Bullitt Park to face Powell Valley in a battle between two unbeaten teams.

At Fuller Field/EMATS Stadium
Richlands.......................................................6 26 7 0 — 39
Honaker..........................................................0 0 0 0 — 0
First Quarter
RIC—Fajardo 32 interception return (kick failed)
Second Quarter
RIC—Wicks 10 pass from Elswick (pass failed)
RIC—Addison 17 pass from Elswick (pass failed)
RIC—Schweingruber 41 run (Fajardo kick)
RIC—Cordle 20 run (Fajardo kick)
Third Quarter
RIC—Schweingruber 1 run (Fajardo kick)
———
Team Statistics
First Downs: RIC 21, HON 7; Rushes-Yards: RIC 36-259, HON 22-53; Passing Yards: RIC 138, HON 86; Comp-Att-Int: RIC 11-26-2, HON 10-24-3; Fumbles-Lost: RIC 1-1, HON 2-2; Penalties-Yards: RIC 12-100, HON 5-31; Punts-Average: RIC 0-0, HON 4-33.8.