By Liz Keller / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
Goochland was able complete a special daily double on Friday.
Last year, Charlottesville handed Goochland its lone Jefferson District loss. The Bulldogs weren’t about to let it happen again.
In its district opener, Goochland excelled in all facets of the game — offense, defense and special teams — en route to a 41-0 victory, spoiling Homecoming for the Black Knights on a warm fall evening.
The win was also a fitting tribute to Goochland High School student Billy Maxwell, 17, who died last weekend in an apparent hit-and-run. The Bulldogs played in honor of Maxwell, who had not played football for a couple of years, but had close friends on the team.
“Me and Billy, we were like brothers,” said fullback David McKenna, who paced Goochland with 52 yards on six carries. “Everyone just got motivated and we got a win, and it’s nice to know we can win after such a huge loss in the family.”
Added teammate Dustin Plummer: “All week we’ve been determined to do it for him, and it feels good to win. They came to our house last year and beat us on our homecoming, so it feels good to do that to them too.”
Charlottesville (0-4, 0-1) moved the ball deep into Goochland territory on its opening drive before the visitors took over. Andrew Gee intercepted Benj Wilhelm’s pass and ran it back 40 yards to give the Bulldogs good field position for their opening possession.
Goochland took advantage, using a 7-play, 45-yard drive to take the lead, as Plummer ran in from five yards out for the score. It was Plummer’s second carry of the year — the senior had been out with a back injury suffered during the summer.
Goochland’s defense continued to clamp down, forcing the Black Knights to go for negative yardage on their next two plays. Then on fourth down, Charlottesville botched the punt and the Bulldogs recovered on the 16-yard line.
Goochland scored again quickly, as McKenna made his way up the middle for a 13-yard TD run. And in a flash, the visitors were on the scoreboard again. Zakell Johnson picked off Wilhelm’s first pass of Charlottesville’s next drive and ran it back 17 yards for the score.
“It’s been the same story for the first four games. Most of the time on offense, we give 21 points away,” Charlottesville coach Chris Fraser said. “And it’s hard, because our kids play hard the whole time. So when you get down by 21 points or 28 points, it’s hard to climb back into it. We’ve done the same thing every game now — we’ve driven down the field and we’ve turned the ball over. At some point, it’s going to come through for us.”
The Bulldogs (3-1, 1-0 JD) put together a long second-quarter drive using their potent ground attack. Ryan Coles finished it off on a 3-yard touchdown run to give Goochland a 28-0 lead with 2:02 to play in the half. Goochland racked up 159 yards rushing as 10 different ball carriers touched the ball. Interestingly, other than McKenna, no one carried the ball more than four times.
The Bulldogs didn’t let up there. Vincent Stratton picked off another Wilhelm pass and ran it 50 yards for the TD as the visitors built an impressive 35-0 lead by halftime.
“I thought we played well in all three phases of the game,” Goochland coach Joe Fowler said. “Offensively we came out right from the get-go and established our running game, which is what we do. The defense scored two touchdowns in the first half and we came out in the second half and tried to work on some things and work on special teams a little bit and that worked out.”
Goochland was able to show its range in its kicking game as junior Colby Cooke connected on a school-record 47-yard field goal with under a minute to play in the game. He also notched a 39-yarder to cap the Bulldogs’ opening drive of the second half. Cooke, who was a perfect 4-for-4 on point after attempts on Friday, now has seven field goals on the year. Punter Thomas Meadows did his part as well, booting the opening kickoff out of the back of the end zone.
Charlottesville visits William Monroe next Friday, while Goochland entertains Orange County.
