By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
A win is a win and any win is beautiful.
But Calhoun's 21-14 win over Ritchie County Friday night in Ellenboro
certainly stretches the "beautiful" concept.
Calhoun's win was not pretty, at least not on offense.
The Red Devils, now 2-0, did all kinds of bad things (penalties, quarterback
sacks, fumbles, etc.) but did enough good things to offset all that.
For instance freshman Zach Moore made his varsity debut (he sat out the
season opening game with an injury) memorable. All he did was catch five
passes for 111 yards and a touchdown, including a pretty 41-yarder where he
took the ball away from the Ritchie defender.
Caleb Hart did some good things too. He had 139 yards on 17 carries while
scoring a 41-yard touchdown. He also lost more than 50 yards on runs that
were negated by penalty.
Matt Houchin, despite facing a ton of blitzes and being sacked five times
passed for 141 yards and two touchdowns - six yards to Moore and six yards
to Chance Hardway.
And workhorse back Jeff Goodrich turned in a solid 70 yards on 19 carries.
Overall Calhoun had 357 yards total offense and 12 first downs.
But here's where some of the "ugly" in a "beautiful" win comes in.
First there was two series of downs in the first quarter where the Red
Devils turned the ball over on downs deep in Ritchie territory, including
one where the Devils recovered a Rebel fumble at the eight.
Then there were penalties - drive-killing, touchdown-negating penalties.
Calhoun had 13 penalties for 102 yards. The penalties killed several drives
and also negated two Red Devil touchdowns.
There were also turnovers, which could be expected on a night when rain fell
and field conditions worsened as the game went on. Calhoun fumbled the ball
three times and lost two of them. The Red Devils also had a pass
intercepted.
One two-play exchange in the third quarter pretty much encapsulated the Red
Devils frustration.
After Ritchie was forced to punt the ball rolled dead at the Calhoun six. On
the first play from scrimmage the Red Devils fumbled the ball away at the
four. Then, before Ritchie could even get a snap off, the Red Devils jumped
offside move the ball down to the two.
Chase Hyde scored from there for the Rebels.
The Rebels other score came on a 75-yard kickoff return by Nate Barnes to
open the second half.
While Calhoun's offense had a few warts the Red Devils' defense was
beautiful, holding Ritchie to 90 yards total offense and two first downs.
Calhoun will entertain Doddridge, 0-2 following a 38-6 loss to Liberty, this
coming Friday night. It is the Red Devils first home game of the season.
Ritchie, now 0-2, is home to Clay County, 1-1 following a 21-14 victory over
Braxton County.
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