Bland County Bears defeat Northwood

By JERRY SCOTT/Correspondent

What a difference a week can make. Seven days after suffering the second worst beat down ever recorded in the history of its program, Bland County bounced back convincingly with a 41-21 win over visiting Northwood on Oct. 2, making Homecoming 2009 a rousing success.
Queens Ashley Ellis and Samantha Magyar reigned over the evening, being crowned as Homecoming royalty during halftime ceremonies. Inside the lines, the Bears reigned supreme as well and even got themselves in the Region C playoff hunt, something that, quite frankly, looked rather bleak a week before.
Jacob Lambert turned in career-best numbers of 209 yards rushing en route to piling up 280 all-purpose yards as the Bears upped their record to 2-4 for the season before entering district competition this coming Friday at Fort Chiswell. Lambert scored four times and had a fifth score called back due to a penalty, a touchdown that would have enabled him to tie the team record currently held by Casey Elliott and Josh Shrader.
The Bears and Fort Chiswell will tangle this week with the Pioneers sporting a record of five wins and a single loss, including last week’s 28-21 decision over county rival George Wythe. Note the game time change of 7:00 p.m. for all MED contests.
The Bears came into their game versus Northwood as heavy underdogs against the 1-3 Panthers. Other than taking a 7-0 lead on the game’s opening drive, the Panthers never mounted any serious challenge as the Bears held leads of 13-7, 28-15, and the final 41-21.
“We had a good week of practice,” the Bears’ Harris Hart said after the game. “And I don’t think we’re anywhere near as bad as the scoreboard showed against Eastern Montgomery. Tonight we played a tough physical football team that Northwood always is and we were fortunate to get the breaks. We seemed to have the luck of the bounce in our favor.”
Panthers’ quarterback Ty Frye gave Northwood its only lead at 7-0 barely four minutes into the game on a one-yard run. The score climaxed a drive of 65 yards in eight plays, including a 43-pass play from Frye to Trevor Hagen on a third down and 11 from the Bears’ 46 just moments after a big sack by Brady Dillow on Frye for a seven-yard loss.
“You know, we came out and dominated that first drive,” the Panthers’ Billy Wyatt said after the game. “Then we go and stop them, force a takeover on downs at the goal line and then turn right around and fumble it away. Our kids just didn’t have any fire in them after that first possession.”
Frye wound up passing the ball 21 times, completing just seven, for 204 yards. Jeremiah Thompson and Hagen were his primary targets, the duo combining for six catches and 186 yards.
The Panthers still held the 7-0 edge entering the second quarter before the Bears erupted for 21 points to hold a 21-7 lead at the halftime intermission. The first of the points came at the conclusion of a brief, two-play drive of 63 yards after the Bears had gained possession on downs at the Northwood 37. Lambert bolted 58 yards on second down for the game-tying touchdown at the 6:49 mark of the first half.
Then after a Panthers’ three-and-out, the Bears drove 85 yards in nine plays to take the lead for good at 13-7 with 1:03 left before the half. Lambert contributed a 16-yard run on fourth down from the Bears’ 34 to sustain the drive and quarterback Dylan Kidd promptly followed with a 19-yard burst to the Panthers’ 31 that would set up Kidd’s scoring aerial to Luke Gibson of 22 yards, his second touchdown of the campaign.
Fifteen seconds later, the Bears were again in the end zone, this time on a three-yard keeper by Kidd after Ethan Stowers recovered Thompson’s fumble on the ensuing kickoff near the goal line. Kidd rushed for 75 yards on 17 carries on the evening.
The Bears added to their score near the midway point of the third quarter, upping their lead to 28-7 on Lambert’s second touchdown of the game and fourth of the season. Frye’s 22-yard punt gave the Bears excellent field position at their own 48 and Lambert crashed through a scrimmage line seam for 52 yards on first down at the 7:06 mark of the period.
”We simply played harder and were more physical than they were, at least tonight,” Hart stated. “We were able to cut back on our mental mistakes. We still made some but we did cut back. And speaking of cutting, Jacob [Lambert] had a real good game. He ran hard, as he always does, made some good cuts, had a big night.”
It was then that the Panthers aborted their single-wing rushing game and were forced to go to the pass. Frye had little success against a suddenly-stifling Bland County defense and wound up misfiring on eight of his final 11 passes. In all, Northwood’s offense really never found a consistent rhythm, appearing out of sync pretty much the entire game.
“Too many mistakes,” lamented Wyatt. “Big runs called back, you know, that’s happened to us every week.”
Northwood did manage to close to within 28-15 with 1:03 left in the period on Frye’s 83-yard scoring punt return. It marked the second straight game the Bears had given up a punt return for score in excess of 80 yards.
Bland County’s lead reached 35-15 on Lambert’s 31-yard fumble recovery return with 8:28 remaining in the game after a Frye fumble, the third of his four fumbles. The Bears recovered three of Northwood’s five fumbles, including takeaways by Michael Parker and Ethan Stowers in addition to Lambert’s.
Northwood came back with a 62-yard scoring drive of four plays to close to 35-21 just over a minute later. Frye had completions of 32 yards to Thompson and 24 yards to Hagen during the drive that ended with Dustin Clear’s four-yard run.
“We had to play catch-up seems like the entire time,” Wyatt said. “I told the kids there when it was 35-21 that we still had somewhat of a chance. But they biggest thing all night was we mishandled the football.”
Lambert tacked on his fourth score with 2:31 to play on a 25-yard run. That score ended a drive of 57 yards in eight plays. Lambert also had an 83-yard kickoff return touchdown erased following Frye’s punt return score by a Bears’ penalty at the Panthers’ 47-yard line.
“Our linebackers are 150-pound sophomores,” Wyatt stated. “Their back, he’s a big ol’ boy that we couldn’t do anything with. Plus we didn’t have the speed once he got through. We’re not blessed there either.”
Bland County cranked out 335 yards on total offense, including 283 yards via the rush. Kidd also competed six of 11 passes for 52 yards and one touchdown. Gibson caught four passes for 40 yards and the Bears also amassed 133 yards on five returns. Their three fumble recoveries made a huge dent in the -7 turnover differential for the season.
Frye was Northwood’s top rusher with 54 yards on 16 carries. The Panthers netted 135 yards rushing to lead total yardage 339-335. Thompson caught four balls for 119 yards and the Panthers had six returns for 111 yards.
Defensive standouts for Bland County included Kidd with 11 total tackles, four solo, Jakob Haun and Lambert with eight assists each among nine tackles, and Dillow with five assists among seven tackles. Dillow, Haun, and Cody Greene collected sacks.
Going into the Fort Chiswell game, the Bears will again be considered the underdog. The Pioneers hold a 9-8 edge in the series but the Bears have won the past two. But Harris wanted to just concentrate on the win at hand first.
“Getting this one tonight feels good,” he said. “After the past two games [losses of 41-6 to Holston and the 60-6 to EastMont] this one was good for our kids. They needed it.”

Northwood 7 0 8 6—21
Bland County 0 21 7 13—41

SCORING—
First quarter:
N—T. Frye 2 run (Thompson kick) 8:02
Second quarter:
BC—Lambert 58 run (Lambert kick) 6:49
BC—Gibson 22 pass from Kidd (kick failed) 1:03
BC—Kidd 3 run (R. Greene pass from Kidd):48
Third quarter:
BC—Lambert 52 run (Lambert kick) 7:06
N—T. Frye 83 punt return (Hess run) 1:03
Fourth quarter:
BC—Lambert 31 fumble return (Lambert kick) 8:28
N—D. Clear 4 run (run failed) 7:17
BC—Lambert 25 run (kick blocked) 2:31

TEAM STATISTICS—
N BC
First downs 13 9
Rushes-yds 37-135 39-283
Comp-Att-Int 7-22-0 6-11-0
Passing yds 204 52
Total yds 339 335
Returns-yds 6-111 5-122
All-purpose yds 450 457
Penalties-yds 7-45 8-83
Fumbles/lost 5-3 2-0
Punts-avg yds 3-30.7 5-33.0

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS—
Rushing:
Northwood—T. Frye 16/54, Hess 8/38, Boardwine 7/28, D. Clear 3/12, Jones 3/3. Bland County—Lambert 20/209, Kidd 17/75, Parker 2/-1
Passing:
Northwood—T. Frye 7/21/0, 204 yds., Jones 0/1/0, 0 yds. Bland County—Kidd 6/11/0, 52 yds.
Receiving:
Northwood—Thompson 4/119, Hagen 2/67, Hess 1/18. Bland County—Gibson 4/40, R. Greene 2/12
Returns:
Northwood—T. Frye 3/90, Jones 1/26, Halsey 1/7, Thompson 1/-12. Bland County—Lambert 2/71, Kidd 2/34, Haun 1/17
Bland County tackles:
Name-solo-assists-sacks—Parker 1-0-0, Lambert 1-8-0, Kidd 4-7-0, Dillow 2-5-1, Fisher 1-4-0, Mustard 0-1-0, C. Greene 2-4-1, L. Gibson 1-3-0, J. Gibson 1-1-0, Haun 1-8-1, Collins 2-2-0, R. Greene 2-3-0, Williams 0-1-0 (Total 18-47-3).