Goochland taking on Gretna isn’t usually a preseason scrimmage. In fact, it’s almost always a do-or-die playoff game. Things didn’t look much like a scrimmage when the two locked up Saturday in a inconsequential tune-up.
For the last three years, the Bulldogs and Hawks have knocked each other out of the playoffs, and the winner has gone on to win a state title. Gretna won the last two battles, and the Bulldogs came out on a mission to make sure that, even if it was a scrimmage, they made sure Gretna knew they were there.
“We came out strong,” Goochland’s Austin Jordan said. “It felt good to hit them in the mouth a little bit. It definitely left a good taste in my mouth. It was very sweet to go out and do that well.”
It was an important psychological boost for the Bulldogs who struggled to match the two-time Group A, Division 2 defending champions’ physical approach up front for four full quarters in the back-to-back playoff losses in 2007 and 2008. That wasn’t an issue in the scrimmage.
“The fact that we came out the first drive, were physical, took the ball down the field and scored set the tone for the rest of the day,” said Goochland coach Joe Fowler. “It gives our kids a little bit of confidence and puts some pop in their steps.”
The scrimmage also gave Fowler a chance to continue developing a passing attack, something that took a step forward last season despite Fowler’s own preference for grind-it-out, Wing-T football. A few drops early in the scrimmage left Fowler considering a shift back.
“We’re trying to open it up a little bit, but if we don’t catch the balls I’m going to stop throwing it,” Fowler said.
And that’s not a threat from Fowler. With more than 1,500 yards in rushing returning to the backfield, he has no problem leaning on the ground game. Late in the scrimmage though, Dustin Plummer, a talented skill position player who’d dropped a couple of balls early on in the proceedings, hauled in a solid touchdown to renew Fowler and his staff’s confidence in the passing game.
Goochland’s expansion to the air will likely only go as far as who runs the show offensively. Three players, Matthew Henley, B.J. Clark and Ryan Crouch are battling it out for the spot. Henley, a senior, seems to have an excellent command of the offense and a good rapport with his teammates as well as a strong arm. Clark, a junior, is a pure athlete who prompted one source to compare him to a former Jefferson superstar, Bradley Starks.
Clearly, Fowler has options there, and he’s got to be feeling good about his squad after the performance against Gretna. Even if the season wasn’t on the line, Goochland played like it was.
“We’ve been focusing on it all year because we wanted to come out and show that we could physically play with them,” Fowler said. “We wanted to show that we could play that type of game.”
In a few weeks, they’ll try and show the Jefferson they can do that too.
