A note to future opponents: if Blue Ridge is successful with a certain play, they aren’t going to be afraid to stay with it. And keep staying with it.
The Barons found some early success by running David Coe behind their big offensive line, and they let Coe shoulder the load as he piled up 155 yards in a 33-6 victory over Covenant Friday afternoon
“We knew right then and there that we could win the game when we could run when they were trying to stop the run,” said Blue Ridge coach Del Smith. “We’re not very pretentious. if a play’s working we’ll take it.”
Coe gave Covenant problems all day, bursting through small seams and big holes the entire game. The 5-foot-9 senior scored a pair of touchdowns, both from eight yards out.
“When you have a big line like that and you have a little speedy back it’s hard to find him,” said Covenant coach Rich Little. “And then if they’re shifty and have a low center of gravity then it’s hard to take them down.”
Blue Ridge’s Speedy McCauley finished off two drives with short touchdown runs on quarterback sneaks and also hooked up with A.J. Williams on a crossing route that Williams took 24 yards for a score.
Covenant had their own offensive star in Lee Coppock, who went 19 for 32 for 287 yards, and helped to move the ball all over the place for the Eagles, who struggled in the ground game. Coppock found Sam Dale seven times for 140 yards while Sam Patterson hauled in seven catches for 63 yards.
While the Barons bottled up Chris Shifflett on the ground, the junior running back got in on the passing attack with 78 yards, including a 28-yard touchdown catch, Covenant’s lone score.
But Coppock did surrender a pair of interceptions, one of which Kyle Aichs hauled in after Roderick Holloway tipped the ball straight up in the backfield.
“We were both on a blitz and he smacked it,” Aichs said. “I kind of laid there for a while to make sure it was confirmed.”
Coe had the other pick, on the Eagles’ second possession.
The Blue Ridge victory avenged a 2008 last-second Covenant victory over the Barons up in St. George.
