According to Blue Ridge coach Del Smith, a few weeks ago, the Barons were suffering from something of an identity crisis.
If the last two games are any indication, that’s no longer a problem.
Blue Ridge piled up over 400 yards rushing for the second week in a row with Mayn Francisco carrying the load to the tune of a school record 314 yards on the ground. The effort helped boost the Barons to a 55-21 win over Covenant Friday afternoon at Monticello.
“We watched the LCA film and the North Cross film and we didn’t feel like we’ve had an identity,” Smith said. “I don’t feel really like we’ve had an identity at Blue Ridge the last three years at the end of the day. We kind of reinvented ourselves.”
Francisco has rushed for 502 yards in the last two contests, and has proven you don’t have to be a speed demon to be effective. Perhaps the slowest of the three backs who handle the majority of the carries for Blue Ridge — Robin Moore and Jerrod Williams being the other two — Francisco’s success is based on his constantly churning, powerful legs.
“(His strength) is just finishing runs,” Smith said. “He runs through a lot of tackles. They talk about YAC yardage, yards after contact? Well his are through the roof.”
That power allowed him to rip off an opening run of 54 yards, and several other big runs of 36, 55, 17, 16, 24 and 46 yards on the day. He was stopped for negative yards just once in his 18 carries, and he gained the majority of his output in the first half where he had 295 yards.
The junior tailback picked the yards up on a variety of plays, hitting big gainers on stretch plays, sweeps and dives straight up the middle, as well as a couple of impressive plays on options, one of them the 36-yard touchdown where he tight-roped the second half of the run.
“I’m just working to get downhill, find a hole and look for green,” Francisco said. “We were all mentally focused.”
Blue Ridge didn’t attempt much semblance of balance either, throwing the ball a grand total of four times, completing two of them with Andre Roberts throwing a eight yard pass to Williams and Lance Grey completing a 7-yarder in mop-up duty.
Covenant couldn’t find an answer for Francisco — or Williams and Moore who cumulatively averaged 5.1 yards per carry on 18 touches — from the get-go, a factor that’s quickly become a frustrating theme for the Eagles this year. Teams have gashed the Eagles’ defense on the ground repeatedly.
“If you can’t stop the run you can’t win football games, it’s that simple,” Covenant coach Dandridge Payne said. “We knew they were going to do that and they did it — they earned it.”
The Barons grabbed a 14-0 lead on Francisco’s first two touchdowns — he finished with three, all in the first half — but Covenant’s special teams answered with a 90-yard kickoff return by Jesse Getchell. Francisco scored again shortly thereafter though with a 55-yard jaunt and after Lee Coppock hit Chris Shifflett for a bubble screen that turned into a 26-yard touchdown, Moore scored two touchdowns for the Barons to make it 41-14.
The Barons’ Michael Kalifeh also recovered a Blue Ridge offensive fumble in the endzone for touchdown.
Covenant appeared set to start mounting a desperate comeback when a methodical drive put them in the red zone, but Darryl Smith picked off a Coppock pass at the goaline and raced 100 yards for a touchdown that squelched any hopes of a rally.
Coppock did manage to pile up 182 yards through the air, completing his last seven passes of the game. But Covenant’s offense could kick into a high enough gear to match the Barons’ high-scoring output.
The game was moved to Monticello because of the rain that saturated Blue Ridge’s home field.
Blue Ridge host St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes next Saturday at 2 p.m. while Covenant has a short week to prepare for a Thursday night showdown with Hargrave Military Academy.
