Friday, September 11, 2009
Opponents brace for Floyd County's chill
Ray Cox covers recreational, high school and college sports in the New River Valley. If you have information you’d like featured,
e-mail ray.cox@roanoke.com or call 381-1672
Ray Cox
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One of the most challenging tasks for the obsessive list-maker is rating Timesland's football iceboxes. Just how many ways can you measure "frozen solid?"
In no particular order, I'd go with a top tier level of football tundras starting at Hot Springs, the mountain-shaded home of Bath County High's Chargers.
Next up is Bland County's deep freezer of a home address.
Then there's the windswept banks of the mighty Jackson River, home digs for Alleghany's answer to Siberia.
Rounding out the frozen four is Independence, whose deep chill has stricken Mountain Empire District visitors to Grayson County for decades.
Special citations go out to Blacksburg (either of the Bill Brown stadiums), Pulaski County, Giles, and Christiansburg -- a quartet whose peculiarities of geography place them on steppes where early winter winds are cruel as a cavalry formation of charging cossacks, swords drawn. Galax and Narrows rate a tip of a commissar's fur hat as well.
All those stadiums make my lips blue and the tips of my typing fingers numb just to think about them.
That said, frigid Floyd County may stand alone. On a good night, so hideously cold is it that an Eskimo might be spotted trying to phone in reservations for the next flight to the Bahamas.
Football has been played in Floyd on nights in which penguins would have checked out in search of more favorable climes.
All this was being recalled one day earlier this week during a visit to the Buffaloes' well-worn practice lawns. It was still autumn warm when the sun emerged from the many swiftly passing clouds, but that was the point.
Fall is already well along up here on the mountain, the dogwoods deep burgundy and the goldenrod shimmering. The breeze was brisk and no longer August-soft.
A day past Labor Day, isn't it awfully early on the calendar to be taking bets on the arrival of first frost on the pumpkin patch?
Not here. To paraphrase one philosopher who was noting conditions at another venue in a different sport, it gets late early in Floyd.
Time to start thinking about liberating those mittens from the mothballs.
Earlier this week, it seemed as though we'd just left here after the last football game last year. In a sense, that was true.
The Buffs went deep into the postseason, a journey that carried all the way to the Group A Division 2 championship game before being upended for the first time all year, by Gretna in the title tilt.
The Buffs and quarterbacking wizard Luke Harris played three postseason games here at home in frostbite conditions, driving an ice pick into the hopeful hearts of George Wythe, Chilhowie and Lebanon along the way.
Harris is gone to graduation now, but fear not, Floyd faithful. A substantial cadre of veteran players returns for another crack at it.
So far so good. The Buffs dropped a thriller to undefeated Christiansburg in the opener by a field goal's margin before clobbering traditionally strong but presently outmanned Rural Retreat 45-15 last week. With running back Chandler Jones averaging 20 yards per carry and scoring three touchdowns, the Buffs stampeded. The lead was 28-0 and then 35-7 before intermission.
It was a different team than the one that lost 17-14 to Christiansburg.
"We didn't finish that game the way we wanted to," Floyd County coach Winfred Beale said. "Our inexperience showed a little bit. The positive thing is we learned from it.
"Each game, I think, we've gotten better. From the first scrimmage with Cave Spring through the Rural Retreat game, regardless of who we've been playing, we've gotten better."
Offensively, there was some question coming in about sophomore Matt Hollandsworth at quarterback.
Hollandsworth accepted very few snaps playing in relief of the indestructible and essential Harris. Hollandsworth, despite his evident ability, is still a 10th-grader. Even so, he's completed more than 62 percent of his throws and has a touchdown pass balanced against a pair of picks. He'll get better. He's good already.
Plus, he's got guys to throw to in glue-mitted flanker Daniel Bradford (12 catches, 176 yards, TD, 14.7 yards per catch) and end Cole Peters (8.7 yards per on three catches) as well as seasoned hoofers to hand off to such as bruiser Matt Link (5-foot-11, 211 pounds) and Jones, who came back from a broken foot just in time for the Three Rivers District campaign last fall. Jones was a key figure in the rushing game down the stretch.
Nobody needs reminding that the throwers, catchers, and runners of the football cannot operate on their own. Help must originate up front. There, the news has all been good.
"We're getting good line play on both sides of the ball," Beale said. "That's our strength right now. It's helping some of the younger people at these skill positions to get more comfortable each week. The line is the glue that's been holding us together right now."
Defensively, all five big boys are back. On the opposite side of the line of scrimmage, three return: guards Chase Vaughn and Joey Conduff, and tackle Joe Link. Seniors each, Vaughn and Conduff, who also start defensively, are serving in their third season as offensive starters. James Bohnke is playing his first varsity season at center. Zach Cox is the other tackle.
Vaughn, who goes a fat-free 6-foot-3, 268 pounds, is off to a bang-up start on both sides. His nine solos and three assists make him the team's leading tackler.
"He's been playing with a full motor, and he's most capable of it," Beale said. "He's just now realizing what he can do, really. He's a diamond in the rough. He could be playing somewhere next year."
Right now, there's a job to do, starting with this week's contest at neighboring Patrick County.
The season gets down to its brutal essence in the Three Rivers District campaign. Radford, Eastern Montgomery, Giles, Glenvar, Auburn on a good night -- as usual, no gimmes.
"Every game, coaches always say it all starts up front," Conduff said. "First play, you have to do it on the line, smack 'em in the mouth. O-line, D-line, we got to get the push up front. That's how we lead this team."
On defense, another approach is required.
"It's not hard, but you can't think about it," Vaughn said. "You just have to react. You read the people's heads the way they're going to block you and get off the block and make the tackle."
There's no resting now, especially on the team's laurels.
"Last year's team's different," Conduff said. "Last year is last year; you have to give credit where credit is due. I think this year we have better team chemistry. We put last year behind us. We want to go back to Salem again this year."
It ought to be right chilly at Salem Stadium when the state title game is contested in early December, but nothing like some of the Friday nights in Floyd that will precede it.
