It was the strangest thing. It looked like Western Albemarle was going to impose its will over cross-county rival Albemarle, and in some ways they did as they scored three touchdowns in both the first and fourth quarters. But sandwiched in between those two periods of play, the Warriors looked vulnerable for the first time this year as the Patriots forced seven turnovers to make things interesting, until Western came alive in the final quarter of play.
In the end, it turned out to be just a scare as Western cruised 42-7 thanks to its defense, which despite spending nearly the entire second and third quarters on the field, would not budge.
“Our defense is really good and I’ve said all along that it’s the heart and soul of this team,” said Warriors coach Ed Pierce. “But you can’t continue to just leave (your defense) on the field and put them in bad field position and ask them to come up with big plays.”
Fortunately for Pierce, his defense did come up with big plays, and after the offense stalled through the middle of the game, the Warriors got back to business in the fourth quarter by scoring three touchdowns in a four minute stretch.
Tyler Ward and Christophe Drapanas had big games in the secondary as the two combined for three interceptions and Ward wound up recovering a fumble.
“In the first half, our defensive backs, we had a couple of debacles and let some big plays happen,” Ward said. “So that was a big thing at halftime. We wanted to work on our DBs and not let (Albemarle) have any big plays and we ended up coming through.”
After Western took the Patriots running game out of the equation, Albemarle committed exclusively to the passing game as they tried to dig out of a 14-point hole. Yet with the exception of a couple of passes to Jordan Hill, the Patriots weren’t able to work past the Warriors’ deep, talented secondary.
“They took away our deep routes so we were trying to go underneath and they took that away,” said Albemarle coach Wendell Green.
On offense, the Warriors enjoyed a balanced attack with passing scores from senior quarterback Stephen Schuler to Cody Davis, Dom Losco, Drapanas, and Ward. Ward also had a 3-yard run for a score toward the end of the first quarter.
Sophomore Zachary Payne put together an outstanding defensive performance and was a big part of the seven-turnover stretch as he recovered three fumbles while also hauling in an interception. Senior linebacker Eric Sheler was another standout for the Patriots. The linebacker piled up tackle after tackle and forced Western away from the middle of the field.
“Last week we looked good at times (on offense) but had problems tackling,” Green said. “This week we did better tackling but the offense struggled. I think we just need to find a way to put together a complete game on the offense and defense.”
Andrew Frazier recorded the lone score for Albemarle when Josh Sites found the receiver on the left side of the endzone on an 8-yard strike near the end of the second quarter.
