RICHLANDS, Va. — The Blues drew yellow

flags, which made their coach see red. But Richlands reached the cool green of

the end zone three times in the second half to pull out regular-season victory

No. 33 by a 20-14 margin over the Abingdon Falcons on Friday night.

"I was very disappointed with our execution," Richlands coach Greg Mance

said. "We've got to get back to the drawing board. We can't let the

weather affect us like it did tonight. ... That's my fault. We should've

gotten a wet ball out a couple of times (in practice), and worked some stuff."

He added, "But hopefully, we'll get some rain, we can practice in it, and

we'll get better."

The rain left over from Hurricane Humberto moved out in the first quarter, but

not until the sloppy ground had its effect on the running game.

The contest was scoreless at the half, at which point Richlands had gained 18

rushing yards on 16 attempts — including three quarterback sacks — and the

Falcons had minus-11 yards on 11 rushing tries.

There were five changes of possession in the final 2 1/2 minutes of the half,

including an interception by Richlands' Kevin Schweingruber.

Mance said, "Credit our defense for keeping us in the game in the first

half."

The Blues' Shane Wicks said, "We were disappointed with ourselves (at

halftime). We made too many penalties the first half. We had to cut down on

those."

Abingdon had not allowed a point all season until 4:37 remained in the third

period. Wicks' punt was downed at the 1-yard-line, and on the next snap,

Austin Fuller and Chuck Payne got to Falcons running back Andre Ayala for a

safety.

The Blues got the ball following the free kick and drove to the 2-yard-line,

only to be rebuffed by a stout Abingdon defense. The ball went over on downs,

and the Falcons wasted little time — quarterback Adam Henderson hit Tyler

Bailey with a pass behind the Richlands defense for a 94-yard score and the

lead.

Fuller said, "I gave up a touchdown there, late in the third quarter. We were

up 2-nothing. Bailey got behind me. He ran a little curl route, chopped his

feet, took off deep, and I was (saying to myself) 'Uh-oh.'

"I got sick over on the sidelines. I think I got sick from letting him get

behind me."

To add to the gloom, Schweingruber fumbled on a hard hit on the next play and

Abingdon's Dewey McIntyre recovered. Henderson passed to Zac Mitchell and the

Falcons led 14-2.

Then it was time for Fuller to recover, catching two touchdowns, and the score

was tied 14-14 after the extra points failed.

Fuller's first score covered 63 yards. He said, "We ran a little stop-and-go

pattern. Joel (Elswick) threw a great ball. It got tipped a little bit and just

hit me right in the chest, thank God, because it's so wet out here, your hands

are slick, you've got to catch the ball with your whole body."

He was almost wrapped up at the Abingdon 40, but slipped away, turned and ran to

the goal line down the home sideline as time ran out in the third quarter.

On the Blues' next possession, he did it again.

Fuller said, "It was a little jump ball pass. We practiced that yesterday,

after our walk-through. We haven't practiced it much. ... It seemed to pay off

there."

The clincher came on the Blues' next possession, a 20-yard TD pass from

Elswick to 5-foot-9 junior Blake Wilson.

Fuller said, "Blake Wilson, I think he had one catch all season. He came in

and stepped up big."

"We were behind 14-2, then our offense just took off," Mance said.

"You've got to give our kids credit. They battled back to win the ballgame.

We didn't play well, and we beat a good team."

Mance said, "I thought Joel did a great job in the second half of coming back

and getting us down the field and getting the ball where it was supposed to

go."

"If anything could go wrong, it went wrong for us tonight," Mance said.

"We didn't play well. ... We're tickled to death to get out of here with a

win, because we didn't play Richlands-style football tonight, in any phase."

Wicks said special teams were "really big for us. A couple of big returns put

us in good field position. The offense wasn't clicking in the first half, but

defense and special teams kept us in the game."

John Bowles, Abingdon's first-year coach, said, "Our guys, I was really

proud of them tonight. They played with a lot of heart, and a lot of character.

And we had our chances. I think they knew we were in town."

Bowles said, "Our defense is playing well. They're not real big. We've got

good quickness, and a little bit of speed, and they play hard. They were playing

low tonight. ... They did a really outstanding job tonight.

"And we were worried. They have some weapons over there on offense. But I

thought (our defense) did a very good job."

Next up for Richlands will be a visit by the Graham G-Men to Ernie Hicks Stadium

next Friday night.

— Contact Tom Bone at tbone@bdtonline.com

At Ernie Hicks Stadium

Abingdon (2-1)..................0 0 14 0 — 14

Richlands (4-0)..................0 0 8 12 — 20

Third Quarter

Richl–Safety, Andre Ayala tackled in end zone, 4:37

Ab–Tyler Bailey 94 pass from Adam Henderson (Clark Cdase kick), 1:23

Ab–Zac Mitchell 23 pass from Henderson (Case kick), 0:20

Richl–Austin Fuller 63 pass from Joel Elswick (run failed), 0:00

Fourth Quarter

Richl–Fuller 55 pass from Elswick (kick wide right), 7:33

Richl–Blake Wilson 20 pass from Elswick (kick wide right), 3:18

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