Micky Sullivan is all smiles. The cupboard is full and he knows it.
Coming into the year, the Fork Union football coach knew he had a defense and a ground game. All he needed was a quarterback. And in Richard Quittenton, a junior who’s in his first year at Fork Union and hails from the small Canadian town of Ajax in Southeastern Ontario, Sullivan has the missing piece.
“As coaches we just hope we don’t mess this up,” Sullivan said.
So far so good. The Blue Devils dominated both sides of the ball against St. Anne’s-Belfield on Friday in their home opener, posting their second straight shutout 29-0.
“It’s a lot of fun when you can play like everyone else plays and throw the ball and catch it,” Sullivan said.
In the first half, Quittenton put his team in great shape on two different occasions with the deep ball. On Fork Union’s first drive, the quarterback completed his first pass for 33-yards to Nick Naimool, another Ajax native, that set the stage for a 4-yard touchdown run by Madison County transfer Andre Parker.
Parker struck again on Fork Union’s next drive, this time on a 15-yard rush to put the Blue Devils up 14-0.
While the FUMA defense continued to hold it’s own, St. Anne’s stepped up defensively in the second quarter to keep the Blue Devils off the board for the first 11 minutes of the frame. However, with 27 seconds to play Quittenton went back to work, hitting 6-foot-3 Akeem Garnett on back to back passes, the first one for 49 yards and the second for 12 yard touchdown reception on a fade to the endzone.
“It was almost easy,” Quittenton said. “(Akeem’s) is so tall you can just throw it up and he’ll go get it.”
Other than Sullivan, nobody’s happier to see Quittenton under center than Garnett and the FUMA receiving corps.
“Oh we are ecstatic,” Garnett said. “We’re so glad (Quittenton’s here) it’s not even funny.”
The only scoring in the third quarter came from Fork Union’s Russell Bodine who sacked STAB’s Owen Van Arsdale in the Saints’ endzone for a safety. Quittenton tacked on the game’s final score midway through the fourth quarter on a quarterback keeper. The signal caller finished the game 6 for 10 with 161 yards in the air.
With the number of injuries his team is facing, not to mention all the new faces, STAB coach John Blake was not disappointed in the loss to Sullivan’s loaded squad.
“I asked our kids before the game to do one thing for me and that was to just keep fighting, keep chugging, and get better,” Blake said. “I think we did that. We never once stopped playing hard.”
Fork Union held St. Anne’s talented tailback Aaron Clark to just 12 yards on 10 carries, but Brandford Rogers and Van Arsdale were able to pick up 26 and 24 yards respectively on eight attempts each. Andrew Crockett provided the lone highlight for the Saints with his 35-yard reception late in the game on an Owen Van Arsdale toss.
St. Anne’s (0-1) will play St. Steven’s St. Anges on Thursday while Fork Union will host Hargrave on Friday.
