varsity.roanoke.com

Special to The Roanoke Times

Excessive penalties and too much Air Cavaliers did in Hidden Valley on its home field Friday night as Lord Botetourt rallied to beat the Titans 17-7 in a nondistrict game.

Both teams are now 1-1 on the season.

Lord Botetourt gained only 15 yards on the ground but more than compensated in the air. Matt Witt completed 18 of 26 passes for 285 yards and a touchdown. Bobby Barton had five catches for 118 yards and Chaz Edmonds had 7 for 111.

Brian Bush put Hidden Valley on the scoreboard first with a 15-yard catch from Tyler Coyer for a 7-0 lead with 46 seconds left in the first half.

"It took me a little while to figure out exactly what I wanted to do on offense," Cavaliers head coach Keith Robinson said. "Once we figured it out it went pretty good."

What they wanted wasn't on the ground. Hidden Valley was more balanced with 158 rushing yards and 138 yards passing.

Penalties that included personal fouls and interference set both teams back repeatedly.

"We missed some practice this week for the rain and the hurricane," said Robinson. "It showed today. We were a little sloppy."

Hidden Valley was the biggest culprit with 10 flags for 105 yards. The Cavs had seven for 52.

Lord Botetourt finally scored with 3:11 left in the third quarter when Witt took the ball in on a 3-yard run. Witt put the Cavaliers ahead 14-7 less than a minute into the fourth quarter on a 10-yard pass to running back James Welch.

"They drew the play up for one of the receivers on the other side," Welch said. "I was wide open and I yelled at Witt and he threw at me. That's two weeks in a row that play worked."

Welch scored last week in a loss to Salem.

After catching five passes for 75 yards in the first half, Titans star wideout Judd Carte was held to one for five yards in the second half.

"Obviously we were going to focus on Carte and we gave up the run a little bit because of that," Robinson said.

A 35-yard field goal by Albert Brogan with 5:14 to play gave Lord Botetourt a 17-7 lead.

Lord Botetourt 0 0 7 10 - 17

Hidden Valley 0 7 0 0 - 7

HV- Bush 15 pass from Coyer (Curbow kick)

LB- Witt 2 run (Brogan kick)

LB- Welch 10 pass from Witt (Brogan kick)

LB- Brogan 35 FG

LB HV

First downs 17 13

Yards rushing 15 158

Passes C-A-I 18-26-0 11-20-0

Yards passing 285 138

Penalties-yards 4-25 7-60

Fumbles-lost 0-0 1-1

Punts-average 3-30 5-32

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING - LB: Witt 13-30, Welch 11-minus-15; HV: Coyer 12-55, King 19-87, Ray 5-14, Greenway 1-2.

PASSING - LB: Witt 18-26-0 285; HV: Coyer 11-20-0 138.

RECEIVING - LB: Griggs 2-32, Bryant 2-24, Edmonds 7-111, Barton 5-118, Welch 1-10; HV: Carte 6-80, Bush 3-40, King 2-7.