George Wythe rallies to beat Radford

By RANDY CAUDILL/Correspondent

If George Wythe had an archive for Friday Night Football Classics of all times, a new game tape would definitely be ready for submission.
After having been manhandled, as George Wythe Head Coach H.S. Ingo put it, for the first 16 minutes of the game, GW used a steady diet of Tristan Boysaw to Brandon Atwell passes and the devastating presence of Drew Lester up the middle to turn a Bobcat 19-0 lead into a remarkable, crowd-pleasing 21-19 triumph.
In the first five drives from the Maroon offense, Radford forced three punts and collected an interception and a fumble recovery. At this point in the game, GW had only one first down.
Radford, on the other hand, had established the “our passing game will set up our running game” mentality, as the Bobcats scored three touchdowns in their first five drives with no signs of letting up. Twice on Radford’s second drive, quarterback Donte Carter found freshmen RB William Minter rolling downfield for big completions on third down to keep their drive alive. After an interference penalty put Radford on the 15 yard line of GW, junior RB Kevin Adkins hit the middle hard for the 14 yard gain. Carter then rolled right and lunged into the end zone at the 5:21 mark to give Radford the 7-0 lead.
Following the next Maroon punt, Radford called Carter’s number again three straight times. On this particular drive, linebacker Kyle Semones disrupted the backfield on two straight plays to force the Bobcat punt. Tristan Boysaw returned the punt and GW had a first on the Bobcat 32-yard line. Defensive back Michael Goodman dashed the hopes of GW as he intercepted Boysaw’s pass and returned it to the GW 48.
Again Radford used the pass to set up the run, with Carter hitting receiver Sam Mumpower for a 19 yard gain. On the second play, Kevin Adkins recognized the Maroon defense over pursuing. With one side step, Adkins reversed field, headed for the sideline, entered the end zone, and put six more points on the board. The extra point snap was mishandled, as Mitch Castanon and Semones tackled the running kicker. Little did everyone realize how BIG this one point would be later.
Radford forced the fumble on the next GW drive, and eight plays later scored its third TD of the game. The Bobcats had kicked a 40 yard field goal earlier in the drive, but a GW penalty gave it a first down at the 11. Three plays later, Carter gathered his second TD of the game for the Bobcat 19-0 lead. This time, linebacker Randy Divers, who had several big time defensive plays throughout the evening, took down Goodman short of the end zone to prevent the two-point conversion.
What happened next had to stupefy the Radford sideline, as GW did a rendition of backyard, sandlot football. Someone told the offensive line to give the quarterback (Boysaw) time to move and get rid of the ball, and for Brandon Atwell to create some spark and make IT happen.
On GW’s second play, Boysaw hit Atwell for 18 yards. On third and 15, Boysaw escaped pressure and found Atwell for a 22 yard gain. Two plays later, Boysaw found Atwell again. This time, Atwell hurdled a Bobcat defender at the 18 yard line for his initial touchdown of the evening, a 45 yard TD catch. With 4:13 in the second, GW used the Atwell extra point kick to make the score 19-7.
Worse for Radford was how it had dropped two potential interceptions on this drive. For the rest of the half, each team traded interceptions and Drew Lester began his bowling alley imitation in knocking over Bobcats in his way.
Opening up the second half, Radford’s Adkins was able to pick up first downs on third down runs twice during a 9 play, 26 yard drive. Unfortunately for Radford, Lester started getting into the Bobcat backfield every other play. After the teams traded punts, a short pass by Carter set up Atwell for his second interception of the game with 2:03 left in the third period.
Starting at the 35 of Radford, Boysaw managed a 13 yard run to the Bobcat 23. Atwell’s next catch put GW with a first down at the five. On his next reception, Atwell ran through three defenders to get into the end zone, but a holding penalty nullified the score. GW ended up turning the ball over on downs, still behind 19-7.
Needing a big play from their D, Nathan Cline started it with a tackle for no gain. Aaron Wheeler then held Adkins to a three yard gain. On third down, Carter rolled out to the left and Semones once again put a big “11 yard loss” hit on the Radford QB to force the punt.
Needing something quick on offense and starting on the Radford 33 yard line, Boysaw once again took the snap and rolled to the right under pressure. A heave off his left foot saw the ball sail fast and long into the lunging arms of Atwell three yards into the end zone. This TD counted. Atwell’s extra point made it 19-14 Radford with 8:22 to go.
Radford turned to its quarterback to keep the GW ‘O’ off the field. Carter did collect a 14 yard gain on third down to keep the drive going, but tackles by Wheeler, Travis Quesenberry, and Castanon forced the Bobcats to punt on fourth down. GW opened up the playbook on its last drive, using Atwell, Divers, and Wheeler as receivers to keep the chains moving.
A personal foul on the Bobcats moved GW 15 yards closer. After Atwell collected 13 yard on the reverse, GW went to the shotgun offense. Boysaw rolled left, shot up into the open lane, and used the downfield block of Randy Divers to enter the end zone for the game clenching TD. Atwell’s kick gave George Wythe its first lead of the night at 21-19.
With 2:50 to play, GW needed its defense to make one more big time stop. A deep kickoff to Palmer was returned to midfield. Tackles by Cline and Wheeler forced a fourth and 4, only to have Carter hit Palmer for a 22 yard gain to the GW 22.
Lester then gathered another tackle for loss, taking down the quarterback for a 3 yard loss. On third down, Radford ran left for 7 yards to the GW 17, but this forced the Bobcats to kick from the left hash mark.
Almost as if GW knew the snap count, the Maroon rush came from everywhere. Randy Divers had one more impact play to make, as he stretched into the path of the Bobcat kicker. With 0:04 on the clock, Diver’s deflection caused the ball to fall way short.
GW finally had good reason to fill the air with shouts of celebration, and possibly some shouts of relief.
Coach Ingo credited Coach Joey Russell with the offensive change up in play calling that GW instituted in the second half. Ingo is geared towards running and Russell helps him to have more of a blended approach. Ingo also stated how he had given more responsibility to his coaching staff this past week and that the players were prepared well for the Bobcats.
Trying to soak it all in, Ingo. reflected on the tremendous effort put forth by the seniors. As the coach stated in his own words, they “willed us to victory.“

Radford 7 12 0 0—19
George Wythe 0 7 0 14—21

Scoring:
R—Carter 1 run (Goodman kick)
R—Adkins 29 run (pass failed)
R—Carter 13 run (pass failed)
GW—Atwell 45 pass from Boysaw (Atwell kick)
GW—Atwell 33 pass from Boysaw (Atwell kick) GW Boysaw 11 run (Atwell kick)