From start to finish it the Goochland offense just didn’t have that feel. Last year, the Bulldogs had a way of chipping away yards on the ground, slowly but surely. But on a hot Saturday afternoon, whenever the offense appeared to have it found its legs, it got careless with the ball. And so on two consecutive fumbles in the second half, Benedictine was able to dig out of its own funk to convert those two turnovers into fourteen points to secures a come from behind win, 14-6.
“In high school football more games are lost than won and we lost today by turning the ball over,” said Goochland coach Joe Fowler. “Four lost fumbles and an interception — that’s not like us. This is something we’re definitely going to have to sort out. The running backs that hold onto the ball are going to get to carry it.”
Defensively, the Bulldogs put up a valiant fight, forcing a trio of turnovers early, two of which kept the Cadets from putting points on the board in the first half. Patrick Clore came up with the ball after a fumble forced by Nathan Adams during Benedictine’s first series, and on the following Cadet possession, linebacker Jess McLaughlin came up another turnover.
Goochland worked its way into the red zone three times during the second quarter. On the first two occasions, kicker Colby Cooke was able to hit respective field goals of 26 and 33 yards to give his team a 6-0 lead.
“The guys were dialed in on defense,” Fowler said. “I know they got tired at the end, but heck, how could you not expect that when the offense was giving the ball away on a short field.”
Penalties plagued both teams, but it hurt Goochland a little bit more as Lemontre Taylor had a long touchdown run called back.
Much like the first quarter, the third frame of the game was relatively uneventful, and with the only scoring opportunity coming from Benedictine which took the opening possession of the half all the way inside the Goochland 20-yard line but missing on a field goal to cut the deficit in half. Goochland put together a long drive and got into the redzone, but an interception on third and long kept Cooke from getting a crack at making it 9-0.
With a little under 10 minutes to play and a short field in front after the first of the Bulldogs’ two fourth quarter fumbles, Cadet quarterback David Geary found Solomon Bullitt for a 19-yard touchdown off a short pass to take a 7-6 lead. After the next fumble, Benedictine worked its way inside the 15-yard line before Corey Downey was able to shake off a pair of tackles for a 12-yard rushing score.
“The difference was we held onto the ball in the second half,” said Cadets coach Greg Lilly. “The good thing was that our guys had short memories, forgot about those bad plays and then made some good ones in the second half there.”
The eight-point lead was more than enough as Goochland turned the ball over on downs during their next two possessions.
For Goochland, David McKenna had the most success on the ground as he piled up 71 of his team’s 111 rushing yards on just seven attempts. Quarterback Ryan Crouch was 6 for 12 with 64 yards. Ryan Coles had 14 yards on two rushing attempts and 42 yards off of his three receptions.
On the other side of the ball, Goochland’s run defense held Benedictine to just 45 yards on 22 attempts. However, Geary was able to get the job done under center and throw for 195 yards and likely would have had more were it not for a trio of routine drops.
The Bulldogs get next week off before resuming play at home against Amelia on September 10 at 7:30 p.m.
