STANARDSVILLE — William Monroe’s growth has come in phases for coach Mark Sanford. In his first year with the team it was stripping the program down entirely and establishing a work ethic. Last year was about seeing fruits of labor, and early on in the year, the Greene Dragons saw it. On Friday Monroe hit the middle of its regular season and with a 31-14 win over previously unbeaten Strasburg, Sanford’s squad picked up its first Bull Run District victory. The Dragons have arrived, and now they have sent a message to the rest of the district — they are to be considered front runners for the championship.
“Obviously we’re not used to that situation here,” Sanford said. “It’s going to take some time to get used to but we also need to have some fun with it.”
It was all smiles and fun for the Dragons midway through most of the third quarter as they were rolling on offense with both the running and passing game and defensively they were forcing turnovers with relative ease.
The scoring began for Monroe with a long drive on the legs of Doug Sizemore but was capped with quarterback Jack Morris hitting shifty receiver Jordan Gentry for a 7-yard score with 4:49 left in the first quarter. It was a long time before the Dragons punted and just the beginning of a big night for Gentry.
“We studied the film like crazy and knew every single route they were running,” Gentry said. “I guess I was in the right place at the right time on all of them.”
The second of Strasburg’s five interceptions came in the second corner and it was Gentry who came down with it. Monroe took the relatively short field and rolled down to the goal line behind Sizemore, using the running back out of the back field in the passing game to keep the Rams off balance. For the second time in a row, the Dragons punched the ball in on a play that went awry, but it certainly didn’t look that way as Morris simply rolled out of the pocket on a boot leg and rushed in for the score.
“On Jordan’s touchdown, it wasn’t supposed to happen that way, but it was one of those plays where that’s just the way it goes,” Morris said. “On my rushing touchdown, we ran the wrong play again, it was a little miscommunication in the backfield and Doug went the other way so I just took off.”
Another Gentry interception set up the Dragons again at almost mid-field and this time Sizemore was able to cap the drive on his own after a 27-yard run brought him to the one, and two plays later he punched in a 1-yard score.
“Coach has been preaching to come out guns blazing, come shot out of a cannon,” Sizemore said. “We just played great as a team. Every link on the chain was tight.”
Strasburg put together its first meaningful drive at the end of the second quarter marching deep into the red zone, but a pair of sacks from the Dragons defense pushed the Rams back and the home squad eventually took over on downs to head into the locker room with its 3-score lead in tact.
To open the third Monroe got a 27-yard field from Adam Weisenborn to make 24-0, and recovered the ensuing onside kick. But from that point on until late in the fourth, Strasburg flexed its muscle starting with an interception to negate the onside kick.
The Rams played a different brand of football in the second half. With running back Rakon White coming off a 240-yard showing in an upset over Clarke County last week, Strasburg shied away from the bruiser in the first half.
“It was a little surprising to see that,” Sanford said. “Coming in we prepared for him to come at us all game.”
In the third quarter the Rams gave White the ball plenty and he produced by rushing for almost 200 yards in the last 24 minutes of play. On a 24-yard run the running back put his team on the board to start the fourth. With 4:52, teammate Michael Conley finished off a drive on a 8-yard rushing touchdown with White setting the table with a pair of lengthy runs.
With its lead down to just 10-points now, Monroe decided to push the envelope on its next drive, going for it on fourth and four at Strasburg’s 34-yard line. It turned into the longest play of the night for the Dragons as Morris sold play-action and hit a wide open Weisenborn for a touchdown to put the nail in the coffin by making it a 17-point game with 2:25 to play.
On the night, Sizemore finished with just under 200-yards rushing and receiving by carrying the ball 30 times for 125 yards and catching three passes for 50 yards. Morris finished with three touchdowns (two passing, one rushing) and had 140 yards passing on 11 completions in 17 attempts
Monroe (4-1, 1-0) heads up to Central Woodstock on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
