varsity.roanoke.com

A temporary power outage at halftime silenced the PA system at Bogle Field on Friday night, postponing the introduction of Cave Spring's homecoming court until after the football game.

When the third quarter began, announcer Mike Tolley was back on the air. Cave Spring's football team never got its groove back, however, falling to Blacksburg 28-14 in the River Ridge District opener for both teams.

Bruins quarterback Trey Gresh was sharp, connecting on 12 of 15 passes for 141 yards and a touchdown while running backs Jon Jennings and David Bales combined for 185 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 31 carries.

"I think that's the sharpest I've ever been," said Gresh, who had completed 50 percent of his passes in his team's first five games. "But I owe it all to the guys up front. We were controlled aggressors in the first half and our defense made the big plays when we needed them in the second half."

The teams alternated scoring in the first half and neither team punted. Blacksburg (4-1, 1-0) rolled up 16 first downs, putting together sustained drives of 15, 10 and eight plays. The Knights (2-4, 0-1) countered with two long scoring drives of their own before running out of time in the second quarter on their third possession.

"We came into this game 4-1 and Cave Spring was 2-3, but I told our guys coming in that everybody is really 0-0 [in district play]," said Blacksburg coach David Crist, in his 34th year. "It wasn't easy tonight. Cave Spring played like a team that really wanted to win, but we just had a little bit more firepower."

Bruins defensive back Spencer Link picked off two Josh Woodrum passes in a span of 57 seconds in the fourth period, as Blacksburg kept the Knights scoreless in the second half. One of Link's interceptions came on the Blacksburg 10 and the other was in the end zone, as Cave Spring forced a fumble two plays after the first Link pick.

Woodrum, who accounted for all of Cave Spring's 14 points with two rushing touchdowns and two PATs, was forced to go to the air in the second half when workhorse running back Zac Osborne left the game due to injury. Woodrum threw 22 times in the second half, completing eight. He moved the Knights to the Blacksburg 9 when the game ended.

Jennings raced for a 70-yard TD in the third quarter to complete the scoring.

"Blacksburg only scored one more touchdown in the second half," said Cave Spring coach Tim Fulton. "But they made some adjustments that kept us out of the end zone. I'll have to take a look at the film to see exactly what they did."

Blacksburg 6 15 7 0--28

Cave Spring 7 7 0 0--14

B -- Jennings 2 run (kick blocked)

CS -- Woodrum 14 run (Woodrum kick)

B -- Bales 16 run (Martin pass from Gresh)

CS -- Woodrum 1 run (Woodrum kick)

B -- Sowers 22 pass from Gresh (Brauns kick)

B -- Jennings 70 run (Brauns kick)

BL CS

First downs 19 16

Yards rushing 40-210 39-143

Passes C-A-I 12-15-0 11-27-2

Yards passing 141 145

Penalties-yards 1-5 3-15

Fumbles-lost 3-2 2-0

Punts-average 2-50.0 3-30.7

Individual statistics

RUSHING -- Blacksburg, Jennings 18-118, Bales 13-667, Gresh 6-14, Martin 2-6, Forney 1-5; Cave Spring, Osborne 11-39, Cole 10-35, Reese 5-32, Anderson, 5-24, Woodrum 8-13

PASSING -- Blacksburg, Gresh 12-15-0-141; Cave Spring, Woodrum 11-27-2-145

RECEIVING -- Blacksburg, Houff 5-43, Sowers 3-39, Price 2-22, Forney 1-21, Amacher 1-16; Cave Spring, Jacobsen 4-44, O'Keefe 3-56, Micklem 2-27, Cole 2-18