Bland warms up for Narrows with pounding of Van

By JED LOCKETT
Bluefield Daily Telegraph

October 11, 2008 09:19 pm

— ATHENS — On Friday night, Bland County head coach Harris Hart was in attendance for Narrows’ narrow loss to James Monroe. The Bears play the Wave Friday in a clash between two up-and-coming Mountain Empire District rivals.
Saturday afternoon, the Bears wanted to make a statement, and that statement came through loud and clear. The Bears rolled up 460 total yards on offense and five different players scored as Bland County soundly defeated an undermanned and overmatched Van squad 55-6 at Callaghan Stadium.
“Offensively I was very pleased,” said Bland County head coach Harris Hart. “Defensively I felt like we adjusted well to the formations they showed us and stopped what we needed to stop.”
The Bulldogs only dressed 16 players on Saturday — the same number of cheerleaders that made the trip. They could not afford injuries with no depth. But that was exactly what happened.
“They are a good football team,” said Van head coach Bob Mullett. “We lost six of them the first half and we were down to about nine healthy kids and we just kneeled down and finished the game. They beat us physically to death.
“They’ve got a great team. They’ll probably be 9-1 this year, probably playoff-bound in Virginia. They’ve got a good staff, well-coached, well-organized, good-conditioned football team and they had a great day.”
At first, Van had the first golden opportunity of the game. The Bears could not control the opening kickoff and it was recovered by Tony Giachetti on the Bland County 16.
But Van’s first play from scrimmage foreshadowed things to come. Quarterback Jarred Thomas threw for the back-right corner of the end zone, but his pass was caught by Bland’s Josh Shrader and the Bulldogs came away empty.
The Bears got the ball on their 20 and immediately began to systematically dismantle Van’s defense. They ran for 371 yards on 47 carries. Korey Kennedy led Bland with 125 yards on 13 carries and scored two touchdowns. Kyle Kennedy added 58 yards on seven rushes and also scored on the ground.
“He ran well. Both brothers did a lot of good things,” Hart said. “But I think the offensive line has got to get a lot of credit for that.”
The line was also providing protection for Shrader at quarterback and allowed him to carve up the Bulldogs’ secondary. He went 6-for-8 for 89 yards and threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Kris Kennedy.
“That’s something we’ve got to continue to improve upon,” Hart said. “Our passing game has got to get better as the year goes along. So we’re trying to work on that if we can.”
All of the Bears’ offensive stats were impressive. But the most impressive statistics was the 24 first downs they accumulated.
“I did not realize that,” Hart said. “That is impressive. It shows an offense that’s executing and understands what we’re trying to do.”
Bland’s defense was as impressive as its offense. They gave up 104 total yards and just eight first downs. The Bulldogs first first down of the game did not come until the 5:40 mark of the second quarter.
Injuries plagued the Bulldogs as well. With 6:29 to go in the second quarter, running back Casey Harris planted his shoe in the artificial turf as he got tackled in a scary incident. He left the field on his own, but did not return to the game.
“He thinks his knee is hurt,” Mullett said. “I don’t know. He’ll have it checked this week. It doesn’t look like to me that it’s torn up. He’s walking off on his own accord there, so I hope everything’s all right with him.”
The Bulldogs’ lone bright spot came with 7:48 to go in the third quarter. Tyler Gunnoe burst through the line and outran the Bears’ defense for a 72-yard touchdown. Gunnoe was Van’s leading ground gainer with 74 yards on 11 carries.
Van (2-5) hosts Meadow Bridge on Friday. Their coach expects them to be without two or three players from today’s game — worsening and already bad situation.
“I know what they run. I know their coach very well,” Mullett said. “They have tremendous running backs and they dress about 40 kids and we’ll be dressing about 12 or 13.”
Bland County (5-1) hosts Narrows on Friday for a 7 p.m. kickoff. It will be the Bears’ first district game and it could not be any bigger.
“They’re a big physical football team,” Hart said. “We’re going to have to come out and be physical with them. They had a tough ball game last night and they probably should have won it.
“They’ve changed their offense back to what they did two or three years ago in being power football. Defensively they fly around really well. They’ve got a good defensive line, good linebackers. I was impressed with them.”
— Contact Jed Lockett
at jlockett@bdtonline.com

at Callaghan Stadium
Bland County (5-1)..........13 15 20 7 — 55
Van (2-5).............................0 0 6 0 — 6
First Quarter
B.C. — Kris Kennedy 13 run (Nick Leighton kick), 8:08
B.C. — Korey Kennedy 18 run (Kick failed), 4:45
Second Quarter
B.C. — Kris Kennedy 25 pass from Josh Shrader (Kris Kennedy pass from Schrader), 9:38
B.C. — Korey Kennedy 26 run (Leighton kick), 4:04
Third Quarter
B.C. — Jacob Lambert 4 run (Leighton kick), 8:28
Van — Tyler Gunnoe 72 run (Run failed), 7:48
B.C. — Kyle Kennedy 36 run (Leighton kick), 3:09
B.C. — Jacob Haun 18 run (Kick failed), :27
Fourth Quarter
B.C. — Haun 29 run (Leighton kick), 9:22
———
B.C. Van
First Downs 24 8
Rushes-Yards 47-371 31-54
Passing Yards 89 50
Comp.-Att.-Int. 6-8-0 6-17-2
Punts-Average 2-30 4-26.8
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 3-3
Penalties-Yards 10-75 2-18
Time of Possession 27:02 20:58
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing — Bland County, Korey Kennedy 13-125, Kyle Kennedy 7-58, Dylan Kidd 4-54, Jacob Haun 3-54, Josh Shrader 5-47, Jacob Lambert 3-17, Kris Kennedy 4-13, Jason Simms 3-10, Team 5-(-7); Van, Tyler Gunnoe 11-74, Nick Green 4-18, Loren Harshbarger 2-10, Casey Harris 3-9, Tony Giachetti 3-(-15), Jarred Thomas 4-(-37), Team 4-(-7).
Passing — Bland County, Josh Shrader 6-8-0 89; Van, Jarred Thomas 6-17-2 50.
Receiving — Bland County, Kris Kennedy 2-38, Josh Pennington 1-17, Luke Gibson 1-16, Korey Kennedy 1-11, Nick Leighton 1-7; Van, Tony Giachetti 2-22, Matt Doss 2-18, Tyler Gunnoe 2-10.

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