varsity.roanoke.com

CHRISTIANSBURG -- Many Hidden Valley fans didn't make it to Christiansburg on Friday night.

The Titans defense sure showed up.

Big time.

Hidden Valley held Christiansburg to one first down in the second half and 50 yards rushing overall as the Titans handed the Blue Demons their first loss of the season with a 28-21 River Ridge District victory in the rain.

Star tailback David Williams ran for 278 yards and two touchdowns on a whopping 45 carries, but a Hidden Valley defense that limited Christiansburg to minus-5 yards in the second half was the big story.

Jung Kim's recovery of a muffed punt set up the go-ahead touchdown in the third quarter for the Titans (5-2, 2-0), while back-to-back quarterback sacks by Kolton Lescure and Kyle Stanley helped lead to another TD that put the visitors up 28-14 in the fourth quarter.

"Our kids did a tremendous job of showing up to play football tonight," first-year Hidden Valley coach Scott Weaver said.

Christiansburg coach Tim Cromer did not disagree.

"We got it handed to us tonight," said Cromer, whose team visits Salem next Friday. "Coaches talk all the time about overcoming adversity. Well, we've got some now."

Hidden Valley ran Williams all night against a Christiansburg defense that was without injured star linebacker Zach Weller.

The 5-foot-10, 178-pound Williams broke a 61-yard run on Hidden Valley's first possession to set up a 1-yard TD by sophomore quarterback Michael Simonic for a 7-0 lead.

He added a game-tying 15-yard TD with 1:52 left in the first half, then finished off the night with 103 punishing yards in the fourth quarter including a 36-yard TD.

Williams now has 1,692 yards with three regular-season games remaining.

"He just kind of hammers away, hammers away, but yet he's good enough to make the long run," Cromer said.

"Coming into the game he had almost 1,500 yards in six games. That's crazy. He's every bit as good as you think."

Christiansburg (6-1, 1-1) led 14-7 after scoring twice in the second quarter on a 14-yard pass from Brenden Motley to Sterling Harrison and 44-yard run by Zach Snell.

Williams' first TD gave Hidden Valley momentum entering the half, then the Titans made the game's biggest play when the 5-foot-5, 148-pound Kim recovered a muffed punt by Josh Winkle at the Christiansburg 9 early in the third quarter.

"I saw the ball bouncing and I saw the returner," Kim said. "I wasn't sure if he touched it or not so I might as well get on it.

"I dove on it the first time and missed. Then he dove on it and he missed. Then I got a second chance. I capitalized on the second one. It was pretty slippery. It went our way."

The Titans converted when Simonic eluded a heavy rush and fired a 5-yard TD pass to Gideon Brown. Simonic was at the controls of a Hidden Valley offense that did not fumble once on the wet field.

"He's growing up every week," Weaver said.

"Every week he gains more and more confidence from me."

Christiansburg made it interesting when Greg Lee turned a deflected pass by Simonic into an 83-yard interception return for a TD that cut the deficit to 28-21.

"The idea was to throw in the end zone," Weaver said. "It was not to throw it off a helmet and have a pick-six the other way. I almost had a heart attack."

Hidden Valley iced the win by giving the ball to Williams, a senior who was a second-string back a year ago. Williams' 45 carries were 19 more than Christiansburg had as a team.

"This is the first ballgame that he's had over 30," Weaver said.

"Tonight with the way the conditions were, it was raining the first half, we felt more comfortable having a guy like David Williams running the ball in those conditions."

Williams felt like giving the game ball to the defense.

"Defense did tremendous," he said.

"They did exactly what we were planning on coming into this game."

Hidden Valley 7 7 7 7--28

Christiansburg 0 14 0 7--21

HV -- Simonic 1 run (Draudt kick)

C -- Harrison 14 pass from Motley (Rasnake kick)

C -- Snell 44 run (Rasnake kick)

HV -- Williams 15 run (Draudt kick)

HV -- Brown 5 pass from Simonic (Draudt kick)

HV -- Williams 36 run (Draudt kick)

C -- Lee 83 interception return (Rasnake kick)

HV CH

First downs 16 9

Yards rushing 52-284 26-50

Passes C-A-I 3-7-1 7-12-1

Yards passing 24 85

Penalties-yards 5-60 7-50

Fumbles-lost 0-0 2-0

Punts-average 6-30.5 7-36.7

Individual statistics

RUSHING -- Hidden Valley, Williams 45-278, Simonic 5-10, Team 2-(-4). Christiansburg, Snell 4-45, Motley 7-7, Fisher 4-6, Thompson 1-1, Winkle 1-(-7), Lee 8-(-2).

PASSING -- Hidden Valley, Simonic 3-6-1-24, Williams 0-1-0-0. Christiansburg, Motley 7-12-1.

RECEIVING -- Hidden Valley, Brand 1-20, Brown 1-5, Patterson 1-(-1). Christiansburg, Snell 2-33, Winkle 2-18, Harrison 1-14, Broome 1-13, Fisher 1-7.