Fort Chiswell defeats Narrows to finish second in the MED

By JIM CUNNINGHAM/Staff

The Fort Chiswell Pioneers closed out their ’08 football season in noteworthy fashion Friday night by defeating the Narrows Green Wave 20-7 at C.F. McKinney Stadium.
The Mountain Empire District victory gives the Pioneers their first winning season in several years with a 6-4 mark. The win also allows Fort Chiswell to finish second in the MED at 3-1.
It knocked Narrows back into third place in the district at 2-2 and also spoiled the Green Wave’s chances of making the playoffs. Narrows ends up at 6-4 overall.
Fort Chiswell Head Coach Stephen James said he was “extremely proud of the team.” He said that after last week’s loss to Bland County, the team could have had a letdown, but it came out focused.
“We’ve had a good year,” continued James. “Obviously, we would have liked to play next week (in the regionals).”
But the coach said his team played well throughout most of the season, and he was happy for the seniors on the team who began with the football team four years ago when he took over as the head coach.
As for the game against Narrows, James said his offense did well against a tough defense. And “defensively, they did a good job of shutting down the Narrows running backs.”
The Pioneers had to punt on their first possession.
Narrows was able to move into Pioneer territory on its first possession, but turned the ball over on a fumble.
The Pioneers picked up a first down on an approximately 10-yard carry by Chris Rodriguez, but had to punt.
The FC defense forced a punt and took over in decent field position on the Pioneer 43-yard line. The Pioneers gained one first down on a carry by Rodriguez and another on a pass from Hody Viars to Anthony Whisman that moved the ball down to the Narrows 11.
Rodriguez then carried it over two plays later from six yards out for the first score of the game. The PAT kick sailed wide left, but the Pioneers were on top 6-0 with 10:08 left in the second quarter.
Narrows lost yardage on its next series and had to punt.
The Pioneers also punted on their turn with the ball but got it back on a fumble that was recovered by Dieter Chandler near midfield.
FC wasn’t able to move the ball, however, and punted again.
But the Pioneer defense again held and a partially blocked punt gave Fort Chiswell good field position at the NHS 21.
This time the Pioneers made the most of it. A 14-yard run by Chandler put the ball at the 10, first and goal. Then Viars passed to Bradley Robinson for a 10-yard touchdown. A two-point pass attempt failed, but Fort Chiswell had extended its lead to 12-0 with 1:35 left in the first half.
The Green Wave gave the large home crowd reason to be concerned when it took the second half kickoff and drove down the field for a touchdown on an eight-yard pass from Corey Lowe to Jake Craft. The PAT kick cut the FC lead to just 12-7 with 5:45 left in the third quarter.
Neither team threatened for the rest of the third quarter, but the Pioneers began a drive from near midfield that was culminated on a 35-yard TD run by Rodriguez. Viars passed to Zack Cook for the two-point conversion to put the Pioneers up 20-7 with 11:52 left in the fourth quarter.
The Fort Chiswell defense then went back to stopping the Narrows offense, forcing two more punts, and taking over on downs twice.
The Pioneers got the ball back for the last time with about two and a half minutes left and ran out the clock for the victory.

Narrows 0 0 7 0 – 7
Fort Chiswell 0 12 0 8 – 20

Scoring:
FC – Rodriguez 6 run (kick failed)
FC – Robinson 10 pass from Viars (pass failed)
N – Craft 8 pass from Lowe (kick good)
FC – Rodriguez 35 run (Cook pass from Viars)
(T – 2:25)