The first 20 minutes were devoid of any offensive action. The William Monroe and Nelson County defenses forced one punt or turnover on downs after another after another. Finally something gave, and not surprisingly for the defense when Greene Dragons senior Doug Sizemore scooped up a fumble and ran in in 10-yards for the score. After that everything was different for Monroe as its offense came to life in the second half and cruised to a 34-6 on the road to start its season.
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“I think there was a lull in our sideline mentality, just a ‘blah’, and then when that play happened, you could feel some enthusiasm rise up the sidelines,” said Dragons coach Mark Sanford. “Unfortunately we had to have a play like that turn it for us. We’d have like to have manufactured that ourselves to start the game, but that’s learning. That’s growing.”
The Monroe offense found its legs right out of the gate in the third quarter. Sizemore wasn’t able to churn up the yards in the first half, but out of the half he went to work, driving his team down on to the red zone. Tight end Zach Duprey finished off the job to make it 13-0 on a seven yard pass from Michael Knight.
Four minutes later on the Dragons’ next possession of the third quarter, Sizemore bowled through defenders and this time capped off the scoring drive on his own with a 3-yard run.
“I was watching for the option to come out on my side,” Sizemore said. “As a defensive end I can’t let him around me and I saw Stacey (White) punch the ball out. I kind of just picked up the ball and the rest was all a blur.”
Trailing 20-0, Nelson County’s offense, which had been stymied all game, looked poised to put its first points of the night on the board after a long run from Tyler Vest, but a fumble on a pitch in the red zone wound up in the hands of Duprey who ran it back 78 yards to increase the deficit to 27 points.
“I saw the ball shoot and I grabbed it,” Duprey said. “It was definitely one of the better runs I’ve had, but it felt like forever to get (into the endzone).”
It wouldn’t be long though until Nelson finally found a way to score. On the ensuing kickoff Rodrell Smith hit a seam in coverage and was able to bounce to the outside and score his team’s point touchdown of the game thanks to the 85-yard return.
But 11 seconds after Smith scored, Sizemore picked up his third score of the game, this time through the air as he rumbled through a trio of Nelson defenders for a 30-yard touchdown reception a throw from Knight to wrap up the scoring at 34-6 with a little over eight minutes to play.
“Well usually I don’t see the ball that much,” Sizemore said. “I was kind of surprised. We ran some designed pass plays for me and I just made something happen, it was a great (thrown) ball.”
The meeting between these two schools was originally scheduled as a scrimmage but turned into a regular season contest after the two schools had Rappahanock drop off their schedule. That left the Dragons with little time to prepare for Nelson’s newly installed triple option offense. By the end of the first quarter, there was little doubt that Monroe had all it’s ducks in a row.
“Credit to John Roach and the defensive staff,” Sanford said. “We prepared well for that and saw them, we watched them on film play and we know that Georgia Tech offense out of the pistol. So we practiced against it for two weeks and were pretty much prepared for everything they did.”
While Nelson was going toe-to-toe with Monroe all the way through the middle of the second quarter, the fumble return for a touchdown and an interception hauled in by Jordan Gentry proved deflating.
“A couple of turnovers hurt us early,” said Nelscon coach Mark Wells. “But the defense did what we asked them too… we’re going to stay together and we’re going to be fine.”
On the night Sizemore finished with 117 yards on 16 carries and also caught three passes for 58 yards. Knight finished the game 7 of 12 passing for 77 yards.
For Nelson, Smith had 45 yards on 14 carries while Vest had 39 yards on 16 carries.
With the way the Governors played on defense in the first half, keeping Monroe’s offense off the board for the first 24 minutes, Wells is hoping that his team will find more consistency on offense.
“We’ve been preaching to the backs in the preseason that they’ve got to go hard,” Wells said. “We told our linemen to stay on the blocks and that things will come.”
