Narrows defeats Bland County

By JERRY SCOTT/Correspondent

Missed opportunities that failed, golden chances thwarted. Call it what you like, but Bland County couldn’t take advantage of what it was given as homestanding Narrows was able to squeeze out a 14-12 MED football victory in Narrows on Oct. 16.
The visiting Bears had every opportunity to claim a win that would’ve enhanced their playoff picture; now Narrows is sitting pretty and in the fifth position of the D1 power ratings for a lower seed as the season enters the final weeks. Barring a miracle, the Bears, in seventh place, have played themselves out of postseason play.
Junior Green Wave quarterback Brock Lusk hit two of three passes for 91 yards and fellow 11th grader Hunter Light scored both Narrows touchdowns as the Green Wave moved into a tie for second place in the MED at 1-0 and 3-4 through its seven contests. The Bears dropped to 0-2 MED and 2-6 overall.
Senior Ryan Dunford kept things mixed up just enough as he rushed for 71 of Narrows’ 94 ground yards and caught the actual winning points on a pass from Lusk following Light’s second touchdown, an 80-yard over-the-middle screen pass from Lusk on the opening drive of the fourth quarter. That score broke a 6-6 tie and gave the Green Wave the lead for good.
The first period was scoreless until the Bears grabbed their only lead at 6-0 with 1:59 remaining in the stanza. Following a Narrows punt that gave Bland County the ball at its own 29, the Bears sustained a long drive of 61 yards in nine plays, scoring on quarterback Dylan Kidd’s one-yard keeper.
Twice during the drive, Kidd completed passes for first downs, one to Shane Mabe that covered nine yards to the BC 40 and another to Raymond Greene, a nice over-the-shoulder grab that gave the Bears first-and-goal at the Narrows one-yard line. Kidd, however, only completed two more passes the rest of the way, one that resulted in a loss of two yards on Bland County’s second scoring drive and the second on the last play of the game.
“We just told our kids that we needed to get pressure on him,” Narrows’ Kelly Lowe stated of Kidd. “They were able to do that a few times. Our secondary played their receivers tight, just a great effort by our kids.”
The Bland County lead stood for some time as the Bears’ defense held Narrows at bay on the ensuing possession. Narrows drove from its own 26 as far as the Bears’ 26 before stalling. Late in the drive, two tackles for loss, one a sack on quarterback Dustin Blankenship for eight yards on fourth down, gave the ball back to the Bears. Eight times in the game, the Bears’ defense stood tall and tackled Narrows’ runners for backfield losses.
Unable to capitalize, the Bears punted away its next possession and later turned the ball back on downs following a fake punt that led to a Green Wave score that tied the game 6-6. From the BC 35, Narrows needed just seven plays to reach the end zone, scoring on a 7-yard run by Light with 41 seconds remaining before halftime.
Bland County’s James Collins had a huge sack during the possession, a tackle on Lusk that had the Green Wave facing third-and-17 from the Bears’ 27. That was just one of the aforementioned golden chances that got away from the Bears.
Light answered that with a 10-yard run to the 17 before a false start still had Narrows facing long yardage at the 22. Lusk then ripped off a 15-yard, drive-saving dash to the seven that set up Light’s scoring run. Bland County’s Jacob Lambert blocked Dunford’s PAT kick as the two teams settled for a 6-6 halftime tie.
Narrows had the Ball to open the second half and failed to score. The Green Wave punted away its first two second half possessions, the second which led to a potential scoring opportunity by the Bears being squelched by a Tyler Wilson interception, the first of three key defensive plays by the Narrows senior defensive back.
From the Narrows 41, the Bears were driving goal ward and looking to score as the third quarter was winding down. A five-yard run by Lambert had the Bears at the 10 before Ethan Stowers was tackled for a four-yard loss on a reverse to the 14. A holding flag on the next play pushed the ball back to the 24.
Following a gain of four yards to the 20, Kidd was picked off in the back of the end zone by Wilson on the first play of the fourth period. Five plays later, the Green Wave broke the tie and led 14-6.
After Lusk recovered his own fumble on the first down exchange, he hooked up for a second-and-10 pass play of 11 yards to Dunford that gave Narrows a first-and-10 at their own 31. Later an illegal block on the Green Wave pushed them back to the 20, at which time Lusk dumped a little screen pass behind the linebackers to Light, who raced 80 yards, scoring with 10:08 left in the final period. It was the second longest touchdown pass ever thrown at the Bears, eight yards behind an 88-yard, Phillip Arnold-to-Chris Rodriquez play in 2007 against Fort Chiswell.
“That was a good play call on Narrows’ part,” Bland County’s Harris Hart stated. “We adjusted wrong and they made us pay.”
The Bears still had their chances as the period was ticking away. They drove to the Narrows 16 on the game’s next possession before turning the ball over on downs. Again the defense stiffened and forced a Green Wave punt from inside the Narrows 10. This time, the Bears were able to score.
From the Green Wave 28, the Bears needed four plays to reach the end zone with a 21-yard run on third-and-nine from the 27 by Kidd setting up a six-yard scoring run by Lambert with 2:04 to play. Lambert fumbled right at the goal line but the officials ruled the ball had broken the plane before coming loose and the play stood.  On the PAT, Wilson and Wyatt Robertson ran down Kidd attempting the conversion pass to thwart Bland County’s attempt at tying the game as Narrows clung to the 14-12 advantage.
Bland County got the ball back with 17 seconds to play for one last gasp try. Three straight incompletions from the Bears’ 22 followed before Kidd, with .2 on the clock, connected with Lambert on his right side. Three laterals later, Wilson recovered Greene’s fumble at the BC 46 to end the game.
“You’ve got to give them [Bears] credit,” Lowe said. “They played a great football game, a game that we were fortunate to win.”
Narrows ran up just 185 yards of total offense on the cold, misty wet night. Bland County fared somewhat better with 234 total yards and an additional 33 yards in returns.
“I felt like we controlled the line of scrimmage both ways the entire second half,” Hart stated. “Our backs ran the ball well and the offensive line did a good job. Defensively, it was the best we’d played all year.”
Lambert finished with 92 rushing yards on 21 carries and a touchdown. Kidd added 65 yards on the ground on 13 carries with a score and added 67 yards passing. Greene was credited with two catches for 60 yards, including that on the game-ending play.  Bland County held a 13 to eight edge in first downs but two turnovers pushed the ratio to -8 for the season. Despite that, and the loss, Hart had nothing but praise for his Bears.
“This was the best we’ve played quite honestly,” he stated. “We hit people, it looked like they were having fun and that’s what we’ve been after all year. Unfortunately, we got beat but the kids played the game the right way, the way we’ve been teaching them.”
Defensive standouts included Kidd with 11 total tackles, including five solo. Jakob Haun finished with eight assists among 10 tackles and Brady Dillow had four solos among seven total tackles. Collins and Greene were credited with sacks while Blaine Fisher and Garrett Mustard each recorded half-sacks.
The Bears will attempt to break their two-game losing spin as they host Grayson County this coming Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Bastian. Grayson County comes in at 1-6 overall and 1-0 in the MED following its 16-14 win over Galax on Oct. 9, a win that snapped a 17-game losing skid. The Blue Devils were off last week.
Despite losing to Narrows, the Bears still have a great shot at finishing the season on a winning note. They’ll take their 2-6 mark in against Grayson County this week and then finish the season at home versus Galax for Senior Night on the 30th. Currently the two teams are a combined 2-12 following Galax’s 31-8 setback to first place Fort Chiswell last week. The Maroon Tide, currently last in the D1 power ratings, hosts Covington this week.

Bland County 6 0 0 6—12
Narrows 0 6 0 8—14

SCORING—
First quarter:
BC—Kidd 1 run (pass failed) 1:59
Second quarter:
N—Light 7 run (kick blocked):41
Fourth quarter:
N—Light 80 pass from Lusk (Dunford pass from Lusk) 10:08
BC—Lambert 6 run (run failed) 2:04

TEAM STATISTICS—
BC N
First downs 13 8
Rushes/yds 39/167 40/94
Comp/Att/Int 4/16/1 2/3/0
Passing yds 67 91
Total yds 234 185
Returns/yds 4/33 2/6
All-purpose yds 267 191
Fumbles/lost 1/1 1/0
Penalties/yds 7/50 10/75
Punts/avg yds 3/34.3 6/25.7

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS—
Rushing:
Bland County—Lambert 21/92, Kidd 13/65, Parker 4/14, Stowers 1/-4. Narrows—Dunford 15/71, Light 6/20, Conley 9/20, Craft 3/-4, Lusk 6/-5, Blankenship 1/-8.
Passing:
Bland County—Kidd 4/14/1, 67 yds., Lambert 0/2/0, 0 yds. Narrows—Lusk 2/3/0, 91 yds., Blankenship 0/0/0, 0 yds.
Receiving:
Bland County—R. Greene 2/60, Mabe 1/9, L. Gibson 1/-2. Narrows—Light 1/80, Dunford 1/11.
Returns:
Bland County—Lambert 1/22, Haun 2/10, Kidd 1/1. Narrows—Green 1/3, Perdue 1/3.
Bland County tackles:
Name-solo-assists-sacks—Haun 2-8-0, Parker 1-3-0, L. Gibson 2-4-0, C. Greene 0-4-0, Collins 1-3-1, Lambert 2-4-0, Kidd 5-6-0, Mustard 0-5-½, Fisher 0-3-½, Dillow 4-3-0, R. Greene 1-0-1, Mabe 0-1-0, J. Gibson 0-1-0. Totals 18-45-3.