By Drew Goodman / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
Any Western Albemarle opponent this season knows that they will face a heavy dose of Austin Shifflett whenever they are on defense.
The sixth-seeded Rockbridge Wildcats were no exception.
Shifflett carried the ball 30 times in Friday’s Region 3C quarterfinal clash against Rockbridge, to the tune of 191 yards en route to a 33-17 triumph over the Wildcats in the Warriors first home playoff game since 2015.
As the game wore on, Rockbridge began to jam the line of scrimmage in anticipation of Shifflett’s impending arrival. Clinging to a slim advantage, Western Albemarle turned to its quarterback, Carter Shifflett to make plays with his arm.
With the Wildcats keying in on stopping Austin Shifflett at all costs, the play-action pass opened up and Carter Shifflett made the visitors from Lexington pay.
The sophomore signal caller tossed four touchdowns, three of which came in the second half.
Carter Shifflett added 67 rushing yards to go along with his quartet of passing touchdowns. With Austin Shifflett lined up next to him on almost every play, it was almost a “pick your poison” situation where Rockbridge had no clue where the ball would end up.
“We’ve got a ton of big playmakers on the outside… and I thought Austin and the work in the run game really opened things up for us tonight,” Carter Shifflett said. “When you have a runner like Austin that can just pound it play after play and an offensive line that pounds it right behind, it really opens it up.”
Carter Shifflett’s four touchdown strikes came from 18, 23, 41, and 45 yards out respectively.
The first-year starter attempted just four passes prior to his first touchdown of the night, as the Warriors were more than happy to keep leaning on Austin Shifflett for the early portion of the contest. He set things up for the passing game perfectly too.
After a nine-yard Austin Shifflett run and the entire Rockbridge defense seemingly expecting a run on second-down-and-one, Carter Shifflett scrambled and hit a wide-open Breaker Mendenhall, and the stocky junior finished off a 41-yard passing play for a touchdown.
By the time the Wildcat defense realized that Carter Shifflett still had the ball, the All-Jefferson District quarterback had bought enough time and space with his legs, which was a microcosm of the entire second half.
“Any time that you run the ball like we can, it opens up play-action, and that’s really where we are,” said Western coach Ed Redmond. “We want to be a play-action team, so certainly Carter has done well with that, and obviously Austin, all eyes have been on him, so when you fake to him… you got guys on the other end like [Jack] Lesemann, [Jack] Weyher, and Mendenhall.”
Mendenhall finished with two catches for 73 yards, and a key interception on defense. The junior picked off Rockbridge quarterback Ty Ruley at the Western one-yard-line and raced 99 yards to the end zone in the game’s closing minutes. The play was ultimately called back for an illegal block-in-the-back
Western (9-2) used the early touchdown pass to Mendenhall and a third quarter bomb to Weyher to build 10-point leads, but the Wildcats responded on their ensuing drives to pull to within a field goal on both occasions.Not wanting to give the ball back to the visitors with less than a two-possession lead, Carter Shifflett and the offense faced a crucial third-down-and-seven from the Rockbridge 27-yardline late in the third. Shifflett delivered.
After rolling out to his right, he found a wide-open Lesemann for a 23-yard scoring play. Then on the heels of his first touchdown grab of the night, Lesemann came up with a timely interception at midfield. The athletic pick set up his second touchdown grab from 18 yards out, which effectively slammed the door on Rockbridge County.
The Wildcats (6-5) ran 17 more plays than Western and passed for 47 more yards than Western, but their high-flying, four-wide offense yielded just two touchdowns, despite eight drives inside Warrior territory. The Western Albemarle defense recorded three takeaways and turned the Wildcats over on downs twice.
“I thought when we got down there close, we really sort of buckled down and made some big plays, and put them in some unmanageable down and distance situations,” Redmond said of his defense. “To have as many redzone stops as we did, that’s a real credit to our defense.”
Aidan Saunders was seemingly in on every play, and led Western with 11 tackles. Lesemann was not far behind with 10.5 stops on the night.
Thanks to Liberty-Bedford’s upset of Spotswood on Thursday, the Warriors will be at home once again to face the Minutemen next Friday night.
“I think it’s real special for our kids and our program. This is something that we got used to our first four years here. Quite honestly, we got a little complacent,” Redmond noted. “We’ve changed that attitude and our sophomores two years ago took some lumps and now they’re seniors. They’ve experienced a little success… I’m just happy for our kids that they’re getting rewarded for their hard work.”
