Usually the script for a Goochland playoff victory involves some sort of drive in the third quarter that slowly steam rolls into the fourth and just demoralizes an opponent… while also putting the score out of reach. Friday with visiting Brentsville in town, the soul crushing moment came on the other side of the ball. Down by two scores, the Tigers just needed to get on the board to make things interesting. After an hour long lightning break during halftime, Brentsville had some momentum, it just didn’t have the points to show for it. So when Will Stratton — who spent the better part of Friday laying down eight cubic yards of mulch — happened to be in the right place and the right time when the Tigers let loose a reckless pitch thanks to some pressure from the defensive line, you could see the hands on helmets, hands on hips, Brentsville players crouched on with their head looking down. They knew the score in a figurative sense, not so much a literal sense. It was over. That simple.
“I don’t know how it happened but I saw two of our guys go for a hit, the ball comes out and I’ve got my chance,” Stratton said. “My eyes lit up. I was like ‘Hey, here’s my chance to get up there and make a big play. I couldn’t have done it without the rest of the team making that play for me though. But yea, you get the ball there and you just go. I got to do exactly what I was hoping to do.”
The Stratton scoop and score was the equivalent of a patented Goochland drive. The touchdown put the Bulldogs up 21-0 and put a bow on a night where nothing really came easy for either squad offensively with just 303 yards combined between the two.
“Defense and turnovers, that’s been our calling card this year so far,” said Goochland coach Alex Fruth. “We still have a lot clean up on offense still but give Brentsville credit, they brought at least two guys on every play, they’re holding teams to five points a game coming into to tonight in a league that’s a lot of power I, not a lot of passing. So they were doing something right on defense too.”
But Goochland had its best quarter of the game out of the gate. The Bulldogs got their biggest play offensively of the night when quarterback CJ Towles decided to tuck and run on a well covered passing play. The 39-yard scamper and then dash to the endzone made it 7-0 with 7:36 in the first.
“I was just dropping back and a few guys were covered up,” Towles said. “But I saw the hole and then trusted my feet. It felt good. It got us up, our energy up.”
On the next play from scrimmage the Bulldogs got the first of five defensive turnovers with Derek Pierce coming up with an interception. That led to Connor Popielarz popping in a 5-yard run and making it 14-0 with only one play called on defense and 2:22 left in the first. The Goochland defense then forced a 3-and-out to make the uphill climb all the more difficult for Brentsville.
Neither team got much going in the second quarter, and the lethargic feel to the game was only aided by an hour long half time with lightning strikes illuminating the sky. But with the bolt strikes far away and no rain to speak of play was able to resume under great field conditions.
“I thought they did a better job than we did transitioning from sitting in a gym to coming back out here and playing,” Fruth said. “They’re not easy to stop though, they have a tough brand of football that it seems like we’re seeing every stinking week now. So that’s it’s own thing. But the defense played really well, rose to the occasion.”
The Tigers came out moving the ball well and getting into Bulldogs territory on multiple occasions but each time the home team defense came up with a play starting with a turnover on downs at midfield. A fumble recovery from Enrique Alvarez ended a threat in the redzone late in the third. Then there was the dagger that was the Stratton fumble recovery for a touchdown. An interception from Haiden McCourt with 1:27 to go allowed Goochland to finish the game by taking a pair of knees.
On the day Popielarz and Kam Holman led the rushing attack with 46 yards each. Stratton led the defense with a forced fumble (on a different play) and a fumble recovery for a touchdown. Goochland won the turnover battle 5-0 and held a vaunted Brentsville rushing attack to just 93 yards. This was the third shutout for the Bulldogs defense this year.
“We just had to keep pushing to try and keep whatever momentum we could,” Stratton said. “That comes from picking guys you up when you’re flat. We just had to work it all out together as a team.”
Goochland (6-0) will advance to the Region 3B championship game and play host to Indepence (4-1) on Friday at 7 p.m. after it dispatched Skyline 49-25 on the other side of the bracket.
“They’re big, they’re physical and they play a great brand of football,” Fruth said. “The run their version of single wing and then back to spread and that’s a nightmare. Their offense is really good and so we’ll have our work cutout for us. If (our score board) has any zero’s on it I’ll be really shocked. This might be a little more of a casino night.”
