ORANGE — With Orange having just pulled to within three points early in the third quarter, Goochland coach Joe Fowler said the heck with it.
Fowler threw out his team’s identity — a misdirection running attack — and, for the moment, surprised everyone at Porterhouse Field with a trick pass play that worked to perfection. Senior running back Willie Ezell, who ran for 86 yards on the night, took a pitch right, then threw about a 15-yard strike to senior wide receiver Alec Moore, who raced nearly all the way to the end zone before being caught from behind at the 4-yard line.
“We don’t throw the ball that much,” Fowler said. “But we got in that second and two situation and I guarantee everybody on our sideline thought we were going to just pick up the first down and we thought, ‘What the heck, let’s toss it deep and see what happens.’”
Two plays later, junior running back Dustin Plummer scored his first of two rushing touchdowns on the evening and Goochland (4-1, 1-1 JD) cruised from that point on, defeating Orange 31-21 Friday night for its first ever Jefferson District win.
The score was a crucial response against the Hornets (2-3, 1-1 JD), which came out fighting at the beginning of the second half. Down 17-7, Orange, behind several punishing runs by Dominique Walker, made it 17-14 with 8:18 left in the third when junior signal caller Cameron Hughes found the senior running back for a 7-yard touchdown catch. Walker did most of his damage on the ground, though, picking up 93 yards on 16 carries, scoring two rushing touchdown in the process.
“[Walker] played well for us,” said Orange coach John Kayajanian. “He ran hard and gave us a chance. I thought he was a great leader and a great runner. Unfortunately, we didn’t do some things to help. We didn’t stop them defensively. They ran against us and threw the ball against us. It was a great effort but we got to do things on both sides of the ball better.”
First-year quarterback Hughes—who completed 13-of-22 passes for 96 yards and one score—also had a solid outing.
“[Hughes’] getting better every week,” Kayajanian said. “He’s making his reads. He’s developing for us. We just have to put the whole game together. We have to put all facets together. Our defense didn’t play well tonight and they did last week.”
Despite some bright spots for Orange, the night belonged to the Bulldogs. The trick pass play was not representative of the way Goochland moved the ball, as the Bulldogs stuck to their identity most of the game, running over, around and through the Hornet defense to the tune of 275 total rushing yards on 32 carries.
“We run the ball pretty well,” Fowler said. “That’s what we do. Some teams have certain identities. Our identity is to run the football. We try to establish that from day one, the first practice that we are going to run the football no matter what. And tonight, we were able to able to find some creases. Some kids broke some tackles and made some great blocks.”
Junior David McKenna was the big gainer on the ground for Goochland, picking up 109 yards on just 11 carries.
“You’ve got to give the credit to the O-line,” McKenna said. “They were doing an awesome job out there. And our other running backs played smash mouth football and we just gave it all we got.”
Fowler was also quick to credit the defense for stopping Orange at key moments during the game.
“(Defensive) coach Summitt did a great job,” Fowler said. “Our kids — we bent but didn’t break. We made (Orange) eat up a lot of time and I think that was the difference in the second half.”
Goochland, which lost 23-6 to Charlottesville last week, bounced back big, overshadowing Orange’s homecoming festivities in the process.
“We were kind of embarrassed at the way we played last week against Charlottesville,” Fowler said. “We feel we didn’t show our true colors. The homecoming game is hard to play sometimes when it’s your homecoming, because there are a lot of things going on other than football. Last week that kind of bit us in the behind. And maybe this week it bit Orange. We’re proud of the effort we gave tonight and things went our way.”
Next week, the Bulldogs get a chance to spoil another homecoming when they travel to Monticello at 7:30 p.m. Orange has the tough task of picking up the pieces and visiting perennial rival Louisa County on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
