Saturday, October 13, 2007
Bruins hold block party vs. Knights
Blacksburg blocks four Cave Spring punts, resulting in two touchdowns.
varsity.roanoke.com
Timesland on Twitter
BLACKSBURG -- At least Blacksburg's football Bruins did not seem to be looking ahead.
"Who are we playing next week?' Blacksburg assistant coach Chris Lucas said, feigning innocence.
It's OK to look at the schedule now, Coach. Here comes undefeated Salem next week.
The Bruins did their part to set up what could be the game of the year by producing a number of big plays out of its special teams and some shut-down defense to stop Cave Spring 40-0 on Friday night.
Timesland's No. 6 team takes on the River Ridge District kingpin for what will probably be league supremacy.
"I don't think we were looking ahead," Blacksburg coach David Crist said. "Some of the players may have thought about next week in practice this week, but if they did, they didn't talk about it."
The main topic of conversation after Friday's River Ridge opener was the Bruins' special teams. Blacksburg (5-1) scored two touchdowns as a result of blocked punts and had their hands on four in all. Add to that 44- and 31-yard field goals from strong-legged kicker Caleb Violette and it was a pretty nice night for Bruins special-teamers.
"We work extremely hard on it," Crist said.
It could have been even more productive for the home team on special teams. An apparent long punt return for a score by Greg Keys came back because he was cited for giving a fair catch signal before returning the football.
Blacksburg blocked a punt last week and two the week before.
Latrell Keys had only a yard to go for the Bruins' first touchdown after a blocked punt gave his team the super-short field early in game. The conversion kick was unsuccessful, about all that went wrong for Blacksburg's special teams.
Keys led all rushers with 92 yards and closed out the scoring with a 13-yard untouched sprint in the fourth quarter.
"Blacksburg has a very good team that can beat you a lot of ways," Cave Spring coach Tim Fulton said.
Generally speaking, Fulton thought his defense had a decent night, but he didn't know what to make of the special teams breakdowns.
"There are a lot of things we're going to have to address in practice this week," he said.
The Knights (2-4) limited the usually potent Bruins aerial assault to 75 yards. However, 55 of those came on a Trey Gresh to Greg Keys throw, catch and run that coupled with Violette's kick to make it 33-0 in the third quarter.
That wasn't the only big play Gresh was in on. He scored on an 18-yard draw and had 65 yards on six carries.
"Those were read plays," he said. "They were keying on Latrell so I took it."
Joey Phillips scored for the second time this year when he gobbled up Walter Gichana's block and hustled 15 yards into the end zone.
"I came in from the side and they didn't block me," Gichana said. "Then I just aimed at his foot."
Cave Spring 0 0 0 0--0
Blacksburg 16 10 7 7--40
B -- L. Keys 1 run (kick failed)
B -- Gresh 18 run (Violette kick)
B -- FG Violette 44
B -- Phillips 15 return of blocked punt (Violette kick)
B -- FG Violette 31
B -- G. Keys 55 from Gresh (Violette kick)
B -- L. Keys 13 run (Violette kick)
CS B
First downs 8 13
Yards rushing 102 182
Passes C-A-I 6-18-1 3-10-0
Yards passing 36 75
Penalties-yards 2-10 6-50
Fumbles-lost 5-2 2-1
Punts-average 6-32.6 2-34
Individual statistics
RUSHING -- Cave Spring, Dyer 13-28, Stovall 2-7, Downing 10-(-6), Caveness 5-57, Keeling 1-10; Blacksburg, L. Keys 19-92, Jennings 3-(-1), Link 1 (-1), Gresh 6-65, Howard 3-18, Parcell 2-9.
PASSING -- Cave Spring, Downing 6-18-1-36; Blacksburg, Gresh 3-10-0-75.
RECEIVING -- Cave Spring, Osborne 2-14, Cain 2-7, Dyer 1-2, Maloney 1-15; Blacksburg, G. Keys 1-55, Wooddell 1-7, Reynolds 1-13.
