The GOTW was moved up 24 hours to Thursday to make room for Ophellia coming up the coast. In most cases when a game gets moved, attendance drops but not on this night. A week after witnessing their Generals fall to the juggernaut that is Maury, they showed up filling the stands and ground to see the Generals in their second home game of the season battle Central District foe Hopewell.

What the Generals gave their fans was a lot to cheer for and that is an understatement. Harry Dalton was near unstoppable, a reminder to all why he is the defending Class 4 offensive player of the year with 5 TD's on the ground and another through the air.

Raphael Tucker had his best game of the season yet as Robin to Harry's Batman.

The Generals overcame a close first half from a pesky Blue Devil bunch. The Generals overcome a slew of penalties. The Generals feasted on the mistakes of the Blue Devils with two INT's.

The Blue Devils on the other hand faced obstacles they could not overcome. Noticeably the loss of Kesean Henderson who left the game with an injury in the first quarter and never returned. The stat sheet a reflection of how his loss effected the Blue Devils on offense. Through the air Dinwiddie had 287 yards, Hopewell 203. On the ground, Dinwiddie had 270 yards but without Henderson the Blue Devils only rushed for 57 yards.

Coming into the game, the Generals were 2-2 but on this night they served notice that despite a difficult and testy schedule, they are still a team you can not take lightly.

Early on in the first quarter it appeared it was going to be all Dinwiddie. After the Generals were forced to punt on their first possession of the night which was sytmied by three false start calls the Generals scored twice.

Harry Dalton ran both touchdowns in, his first 2 of 5 on the night. The first took two plays and 64 yards, the other was 10 plays and 61 yards.

The Generals appeared in control on defense as much as they did on offense forcing the Blue Devils to 2 three and outs with Carter Bishop headlining the defense with two tackles.

After the Generals second TD of the night, however, Hopewell gave a glimpse of what they are capable of. A 52-yard Jackson Van Meter punt found the hands of Cornelius Cooke and who turned on the jets and eluded defenders for 92 yards till he was able to tag the end zone. Just like that the shutout was over and the Blue Devils were within a touchdown of the mighty Generals.

To start the second quarter the Blue Devils were back on offense. The Blue Devil defense had forced a turnover on downs for Dinwiddie after the Generals were unable to overcome two more penalties.

Disaster would strike the Blue Devils again. The Blue Devils went airborne with Mic'Kahari Tatum hitting Cornelius Cooke and Raphael Dabney with back-to-back passes of 10+ yards to cross the 50 and threaten the Generals on their side of the feel. The Generals would not be threatened... Cornelius Cooke would be on the receiving end of a 19-yard pass from Tatum, take it to the Dinwiddie 22 and he would fumble the ball as he is hit and there to make the recovery for the Generals was Zion Boisseau.

The next two possessions for Dinwiddie would suffer setbacks to penalties, a common theme on this night. Sandwiched in between was another 3 & out possession for the Blue Devils in which Robert Pettaway would get to Tatum with the sack.

Tatum would fare better on the next Blue Devils possession as 3 of the first 4 plays for Hopewell would be by Tatum's arm for a total of 26 yards. His next two passes would not go as well and the Blue Devils faced a 3rd & 8 and appeared Hopewell might have to settle for a field goal.

On a night where Dinwiddie was penalized 13 times for 104 yards, the flag would come out following an incomplete pass for a personal foul extending the Blue Devils drive. With the ball at the 7, it only took Tatum and the Blue Devils two plays to tie this one up.

Dinwiddie would have a little more than a minute to play with in the half and they made the most of it. Facing 3rd & 18 after another Generals penalty, Harry Dalton found Zalen Wiggins for a 53-yard pass down at the Hopewell 21. Back-to-back Raphael Tucker runs for 14 yards was all Dalton needed. As time expired in the half, the Generals reclaimed the lead with Dalton's third TD run of the night.

The third quarter turned out to be a quarter the Blue Devils would like to forget.

After winning the coin toss and deferring to the second half, the Blue Devils exited the third quarter down by three touchdowns.

The Blue Devils turned the ball over twice in the third quarter. The first instance was after another drive was extended by a Generals penalty. Mic'Kahari Tatum put the ball in the air and Mickiel Johnson of Dinwiddie snagged it and returned it 22 yards to the Hopewell 33. The Generals needed just 3 plays to punch it in, Dalton accounted for 21 of those yards on 2 carries, the last 18 to tag the end zone for a fourth time.

Carter Bishop continued to torment the Blue Devils on defense forcing another 3 & out. Meanwhile Dinwiddie would move the ball 51 yards in 8 plays with Harry Dalton & Raphael Tucker splitting carries for a total of 35 yards but in the end it was Dalton in the end zone for a fifth time.

The Blue Devils now down 3 touchdowns had something going with Tatum connecting with John Johnson on back-to-back passes for 22 yards and for the first time in this quarter the Blue Devils had cross the 50 but it would not last. Tatum would put it in the air and this time it would be Zalen Wiggins going up and plucking it out of the sky.

For the first time tonight, Hopewell would be shut out in a quarter.

To start the fourth Hopewell had a fresh set of downs to work with but the turnover bug nearly struck again. Mic'Kahari Tatum fumbled on 3rd & 5 but was able to recover but not before losing 2 yards. Tatum came right back, showing no quit and delivered a 23-yard pass to Cameron Minter and followed that up with a 16-yard touchdown run. With a two-point conversion the Blue Devils were within two touchdowns.

It would not last.

It took just 2 plays for Dinwiddie to answer the Blue Devils score with Harry Dalton finding his man Mickiel Johnson for a 56-yard touchdown pass. The two then connected again on the two-point conversion and the Generals had their three touchdown lead back.

It appeared the fourth quarter might turn into a shootout. On the first play from scrimmage Tatum found Raphael Dabney for a pickup of 64 yards. Cam Hunt on his second carry of the series got it down to the Generals 3... a score appeared imminent, if not for a holding call that brought it back to the 13. The Blue Devils never got any closer than the 10, turning it over on downs.

Dinwiddie came right back covering 90 yards in 7 plays highlighted by a 20-yard pass from Dalton to Caleb Bowles and a 51-yard pass from Dalton to Raphael Tucker who nearly took it to the house. On the next play, Tucker finished what he started with his first touchdown of the night and with the ensuing PAT, the Generals had 50 on a Hopewell team that had two shutouts to their credit coming into this matchup.

Hopewell would go three and out, the Generals would roll out their second team and the game was in hand... the Generals had their first win of the season in front of the home crowd.

Harry Dalton accounted for five touchdowns on the ground where he amassed 131 yards on 16 carries... an average of 8 yards per carry. The junior QB and defending Class 4 Offensive Player of the Year also sailed the ball through the air for 269 yards while completing 11 of 18 and a touchdown there a as well. Dalton alone accounted for 400 of the Generals 557 yards of offense.

Raphael Tucker coming into the game only had 201 yards rushing and 2 TD's this season but on this night the Robin to Dalton's Batman made his presence felt. Tucker turned in numbers similar to what we saw last year with 107 yards on the ground and a TD. Tucker had 3 catches for 12 yards coming in, in this game alone he had 3 catches for 78 yards!

Dinwiddie is now 29-27-1 all-time versus Hopewell.

Coach Mills has 10 of the 13 meetings with Hopewell.

Dinwiddie improves to 16-13-1 at home against the Blue Devils.

50 points scored on Hopewell was the most for Dinwiddie since 2016 when they put 63 on the Blue Devils.