Published: October 20, 2007 01:07 am      

Nothing Bland about these Bears

NARROWS, Va. — A week off from football did nothing to change the balance of power between a couple of Mountain Empire District opponents.

Bland County improved to 6-1 for the second straight year on Friday night, pulling away in the second half for a 32-15 win over the Green Wave of Narrows (1-6).

“We just had things clicking,” Bears coach Harris Hart said.

“We’d prepared all week for their spread, and they (Narrows) came out in their wing — which we’d talked about with our kids, we just hadn’t really worked on it. But our kids adjusted very well, and played hard.”

The Wave turned the ball over four times and gave up four second-half sacks. On offense, the Bears’ Josh Shrader was 4-for-4 passing and Korey Kennedy gained 136 yards on 15 carries.

The Bears immediately took advantage of Shrader’s early interception of Corey Lowe. On the next play, Kennedy rambled 58 yards for a 6-0 lead. The point-after kick failed.

Narrows answered in six plays, which included Lowe’s 45-yard pass to Brett Buracker and a 17-yard scoring toss to Dale Jones. Derrick Reed’s kick gave the home team a 7-6 lead.

The Bears got the last score of the half on their next drive, when Shrader passed to Kris Kennedy in the back of the end zone, at the end of a nine-play march.

Narrows then buckled down on defense, sacking Shrader twice and forcing three punts. But the Bears’ Nick Leighton nailed a 54-yard punt with a minute left in the half to mute the challenge. Kyle Kennedy then intercepted a Lowe pass on the last play of the half.

Narrows coach Kelly Lowe said, “We played some good defense in the second quarter, and we would have just a couple of letdowns. And that’s part of it. That’s part of football, and when you have those mistakes, they can hurt you.”

The second half began with Narrows kicking off, and the Bears fumbling and Jones recovering for the Green Wave. But four plays later, Korey Kennedy picked off a Lowe pass and returned it 13 yards.

Hart said, “We gave them great field position, (and) our defense stepped up in a tough situation.”

Lowe said, “It would have been nice to have punched it in right there, but our drive stalled.”

Bland County went 58 yards in seven plays with Korey Kennedy recording his second TD on a 17-yard run.

“That was a huge momentum change,” Hart said.

Shrader added a touchdown on a quarterback sneak and Jacob Lambert sprinted 23 yards to extend the lead to 32-7. Narrows turned to lineman Jonathan Martin to carry the ball on three plays to help launch a 13-play drive ending with Lowe’s TD toss to Buracker.

Bland County ran up 274 rushing yards. Narrows gained 103 yards on the ground, led by Chad McCroskey’s 47, and 65 via the air.

Hart said, “The offensive line continues to get better. We’re coming off the ball a lot better, we’re understanding what to do, where to go and who to block. And our backs are helping out by blocking better. Our receivers are blocking better. Our backs are running hard.”

Hart said, “We got some kids banged up, and had to make some adjustments at halftime, special-teams-wise. Everybody paid attention and focused and got where they needed to be.”

The Bears were flagged 11 times for 95 yards. Hart said, “We overcame (the penalties) and that’s the mark of a pretty good team.”

Lowe said, “We just couldn’t capitalize. ... I thought we ran the ball pretty well tonight, but we had some untimely mistakes and that’s the things we’ve got to cut out.

“But our kids battled, and played hard. I’m proud of our kids. (Give) credit to Bland; Bland’s got a good team. Coach Hart does a good job.”

The Bears host another district rival, Galax, this Friday. The Green Wave, which had to deal this week with the distraction of a staph infection among two in its student body, is on the road for district games in the next two weeks, at Pocahontas and at Galax.

— Contact Tom Bone at

tbone@bdtonline.com



At Narrows

Bland County (6-1)...........12 0 8 12 — 32

Narrows (1-6)......................7 0 0 8 — 15

First Quarter

BC–Korey Kennedy 58 run (kick wide), 9:05

NHS–Dale Jones 17 pass from Corey Lowe (Derrick Reed kick), 5:48

BC–Kris Kennedy 8 pass from Josh Shrader (run failed), 1:07

Third Quarter

BC–Korey Kennedy 17 run (Shrader run), 7:08

Fourth Quarter

BC–Shrader 1 run (run failed), 10:16

BC–Jacob Lambert 23 run (kick blocked), 7:04

NHS–Brett Buracker 5 pass from Lowe (Reed pass from Lowe), 1:36

IVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — BC, Korey Kennedy 15-136, Adam Kirk 4-28, Josh Shrader 10-56, Kyle Kennedy 2-4, Kris Kennedy 4-9, Josh Pennington 1-12, Dakota Crouse 1-8, Jacob Lambert 3-21. NHS, Chad McCroskey 12-47, Josh Collins 4-14, Corey Lowe 12-3, Brett Buracker 3-9, Josh Waldron 4-10, Jonathan Martin 3-15, Aaron Blankenship 1-5. PASSING — BC, Josh Shrader 4-4-49 yd.-1 TD-0 intc. NHS, Lowe 3-14-65 yd.-0 TD-3 intc. RECEIVING — BC, Kris Kennedy 1-8, Josh Pennington 2-24, Dakota Crouse 1-17. NHS, Brett Buracker 2-50, Josh Collins 1-15.