Bland County whips Grayson County to win MED championship

BEARS GROWL, BLUE DEVILS BOW
By JERRY SCOTT/Staff

Bland County got another outstanding performance from senior Josh Shrader and the Bears won their first ever outright MED championship with a 29-14 win over Grayson County in Independence on Nov. 7.
The program, which had shared titles in 1994 and 2001, completed the district part of the schedule with a 4-0 mark, 9-1 overall.
Years of futility for the program against Grayson County ended with the win. Only two wins, one a forfeit, during the 16 years Bland County has had varsity football was all a Bear team could muster. Going into the game last week, one had to wonder if, despite the success of the 2008 unit, would the losing continue?
It took a while for the answer to unfold but once it did, little was left to doubt. The Blue Devils humbled the Bears somewhat during the first half but the opening possession of the second half opened an offensive third quarter flood gate into 20 unanswered points and a 29-6 advantage.
Shrader rushed for 157 yards on just 10 carries for the Bears and scored three touchdowns for the second consecutive game. He scored on runs of 44, 64, and 39 yards, finishing the regular season with 20 touchdowns.
He also recorded his seventh interception of the season, erasing Jon Michael Newberry (1996) from the head of that Bears’ list. His 14 career interceptions are three more than Thomas Willis had from 2004-06.
Senior teammate Korey Kennedy added 107 yards rushing on 20 carries and scored his 11th touchdown of the season. The Bears amassed 379 yards of total offense, 344 of which came rushing.
The first of three Nick Leighton punts that exceeded 50 yards was directly responsible to the Bears taking a 2-0 lead midway through the opening quarter. On second down from the Grayson County three-yard line, the Bears’ Kyle Kennedy sacked Blue Devils’ quarterback Ryan Hernandez for a safety at the 6:08 mark.
In the second quarter, the Bears extended their lead to 9-0 after a short punt by the Blue Devils left the Bears good field position at the GC 39. Shrader’s off-tackle run of 44 yards on third-and-15 as well as Leighton’s PAT came at the 8:14 mark of the first half.
Still unable to move the ball, Grayson County was forced to punt again on its next possession but struck later after a 10-play Bland County drive ended at the Grayson County 23 when Shrader was intercepted by Blue Devils’ sophomore Eric Harvey.
Harvey’s 52-yard return back to the Bears’ 25 set up Grayson County’s first score with 33 seconds left in the first half. A one-yard loss by Rusty Williams and a motion penalty led to second-and-16 but Hernandez hooked up with Harvey on a 31-yard touchdown pass that severed the Bears’ lead to 9-6 at the break.
“We may have been battling some nerves there early on,” Bland County’s Harris Hart stated. “Grayson County defended us well, we made a few good plays on ‘em, but they came right at us.”
Huddled at halftime the Bland County coaches pondered what adjustments to make, eventually settling on very few. The players opened the second half on a mission and quickly dispelled any notions Grayson County may have had for an upset.
“We didn’t want to change things up any,” Hart said. “We just encouraged out offensive line to get quicker coming off the ball and start blocking better and we did that.”
On second down, Shrader found a seam and sprinted 64 yards for his second score of the game. Fifty-four seconds into the second half, the Bears led 15-6.
“That play was the turning point,” Hart stated. “The line came off the ball, opened up a hole and Shrader popped through it and was gone.”
That lead quickly ballooned to 22-6 after Grayson County was again forced to punt. Bland County’s Ethan Jones partially blocked Williams’ kick and the end result was a four-yard kick that led to Sharder’s third score, a 39-yard first down run with 9:49 left in the third period.
Shrader’s record-setting interception closed the deal on the ensuing Grayson County possession and punts by the Bears’ Leighton and Grayson County’s Williams ended the next two drives. Williams’ 29-yard kick and Jacob Lambert’s 16-yard return to the Grayson County 49 led to Korey Kennedy’s second down, 45-yard up-the-middle scoring run with one second remaining in the stanza as the lead jumped to 29-6.
The first two possessions of the fourth quarter ended with Kennedy picking off Hernandez at the GC 30 but later fumbling the ball back to the Blue Devils at the eight-yard line. Two plays later, the Bears’ Dylan Kidd picked off Hernandez at the GC 47 to end that series.
Thanks to four Bland County penalties, the ensuing four snaps resulted in just six yards and Grayson County got the ball back on downs at their own 41 with 5:16 left to play. Four plays later, at 3:16, Hernandez stuck it in from six yards out for the game’s final score.
Defensive standouts for the Bears included Kyle Kennedy, Korey Kennedy, and B. J. Gibson. Kyle Kennedy collected 12 total tackles, including four solo while Korey Kennedy had two solos among his eight overall tackles. Gibson had seven total tackles before leaving the game with a mild concussion in the third quarter.
“Defensively I felt like we played very well,” said Hart. “We gave up a couple of pass plays but other than that, we didn’t give up very much.”
Grayson County, which has endured possibly their worst ever season, finished at 0-4 MED and 0-10 overall. Williams was their top rusher with 71 yards on 12 carries. Hernandez added 45 yards on 17 carries and hit just four of 17 passes for 59 yards. Harvey caught three balls for 53 yards as Grayson County netted just 175 yards of total offense.
It was surmised going into the game that even a Bland County win wouldn’t be enough to hold on to the top seed for this Friday’s regional semifinals. As of Sunday’s official release by the Virginia High School League, figures dictated that the Bears would be seeded number two and would host Pioneer District champion Bath County (7-3). Top seed Holston (8-2), which defeated Bland County 42-26 back on Sept. 12, will be hosting Eastern Montgomery (5-5) in the other semifinal game.
In possibly one of the closest finishes ever, Holston outpointed Bland County for the top seed by one-tenth of a point and Bath County held the same advantage over Eastern Montgomery for the third seed.

Bland County 2 7 20 0—29
Grayson County 0 6 0 8—14

SCORING—
First quarter:
BC—Safety, Ky. Kennedy sacked Hernandez in end zone 6:08
Second quarter:
BC—Shrader 44 run (Leighton kick) 8:14
GC—Harvey 31 pass from Hernandez (pass failed):33
Third quarter:
BC—Shrader 64 run (kick blocked) 11:06
BC—Shrader 39 run (Leighton kick) 9:49
BC—Ko. Kennedy 45 run (Leighton kick):01
Fourth quarter:
GC—Hernandez 6 run (Williams run) 3:16

TEAM STATISTICS—
BC GC
First downs 8 9
Rushes/yds 48/344 29/116
Comp/Att/Int 3/8/1 4/17/3
Passing yds 35 59
Returns/yds 6/60 6/113
Penalties/yds 12/75 13/80
Fumbles/lost 1/1 0/0
Punts/avg yds 3/52.3 5/25.6

INDIVUDUAL STATISTICS—
Rushing:
Bland County—Shrader 10/157, Ko. Kennedy 20/107, Ky. Kennedy 8/44, Lambert 3/28, Kr. Kennedy 1/5, Kidd 6/3. Grayson County—Williams 12/71, Hernandez 17/45.
Passing:
Bland County—Shrader 3/8/1, 35 yds., Kidd 0/0/0, 0 yds. Grayson County—Hernandez 4/17/3, 59 yds.
Receiving:
Bland County—Ky. Kennedy 1/16, Kr. Kennedy 1/11, Dalton 1/8. Grayson County—Harvey 3/53, Hash 1/6.
Returns:
Bland County—Lambert 2/17, Pennington 1/14, Shrader 1/13, Ko. Kennedy 1/9, Kr. Kennedy 1/7. Grayson County—Harvey 1/52, Hernandez 3/45, Williams 1/12, Osborne 1/ 4.