Luray moves to 5-4 and heads to Budy Comer Stadium on Friday night
By Randy Arrington
LURAY, Oct. 31 — Luray dominated the fourth quarter on Friday night to put away Clarke County, 36-13, in a Bull Run District matchup at Bulldog Field. The home team recorded more than 300 yards of offense behind its familiar three-headed rushing attack, plus a new combination at quarterback and receiver that is so far perfect through the air. After two tough road losses, the Bulldogs are now 5-4 and will travel to Page County High School on Friday night to wrap-up the regular season.
“It is a big win,” LHS head coach Lynn “Skip” Hamilton said after the three-touchdown victory over the Eagles. “We played that gauntlet of Strasburg and Central and those are two great teams…we came out with a couple of injuries…”
Those injuries have created some shuffling on the player chart, most noticeably at quarterback, where three-year starter Ayden Haddock shifted to wide receiver, and sophomore C.J. Jeffries started taking snaps.
“Chance Beahm is not back yet from that hamstring he suffered a couple weeks ago at homecoming, so we moved a couple of people around,” Coach Hamilton told PVN. “We moved Ayden out to receiver because he’s a tall, lanky kid and he’s athletic, so we said maybe we can get him outside a little bit.”
Luray put up 36 points on Friday night against the Eagles after only mustering six total points against Strasburg and Central over the past two weeks. Everyone knows that Luray will only attempt a few passes each game, but when the Bulldogs are able to go 3-for-3, for 57 yards, a touchdown and a two-point conversion, it certainly takes a little pressure off the run game and makes the offense seem a little less one-dimensional.
“C.J. came back from his broken thumb, and he can run the ball a little bit as well as try some throwing, and there was Ayden out there as an explosive receiver [who has good hands],” said Coach Hamilton. “So it helps.”
While the new weapons are nice, the roll call remained much the same for Halloween night, as the Bulldogs rushed for 293 yards on 42 carries — that’s an average of 7 yards per carry, as a team, which includes five different ballcarriers. Once again, Caleb Cyphert proved to be the most efficient Bulldog in the backfield, as the sophomore picked up 106 yards and a touchdown on just nine carries (11.8 ypc). Big bruising Ryan Jenkins proved the most productive again, as the junior found the end zone twice and tallied up 81 yards on 16 caries (5.1 ypc). And senior Cason Bryant proved to be the most consistent, picking up key first downs to extend drives while totaling 59 yards on 10 carries (5.9 ypc).
In addition to going 3-for-3 with a touchdown and a two-point conversion through the air, Jeffries also had 42 yards on six carries and a touchdown on the ground. Overall, Luray had 318 yards of offense, with 293 rushing and 57 passing. The Bulldogs picked up 13 first downs, but were penalized eight times during the game.
A big factor in momentum on Friday night came from Luray’s ability to win the slim turnover margin. The only true turnover came when sophomore Mason Cubbage snagged an interception with just over four minutes left in the game. However, the Bulldogs were able to execute, in effect, an onside kick late in the first half when the ball took a favorable bounce with 47 seconds left. Not only did it steal a possession from Clarke, but Luray would score in one play as Jeffries connected with Haddock on a 45-yard touchdown pass.
In terms of being one dimensional — the Eagles leaned heavily on Grady Ferrell. The 5’8″ sophomore running back carried the ball on Clarke’s first 16 plays from the line of scrimmage. Ferrell would end the night with 109 yards on 28 carries (3.9 ypc) and one touchdown.
After turning the ball over twice on downs — on their 17th play of the game — Clarke handed the ball to someone other than Grady Ferrell. On his first carry of the night, Eidyn Mina-Hamerman broke lose for 84 yards before being pulled down at the one. He bulled in from the one to give Clarke its only score of the first half. Mina-Hamerman would finish the game with 120 yards on a dozen carries (10 ypc) and a touchdown.
Luray scored in just five plays on its first drive, as Jeffries sprinted 37 yards around the end to the goal line with 7:13 left in the first quarter. Jefferies would connect with Haddock for the two-point conversion to go up 8-0. The Bulldogs put together an 11-play drive during their next possession, but ended up punting. Their next drive would eat up most of the second quarter as they marched 69 yards on 11 plays. Jenkins would drag defenders with him to the end zone from 10 yards out for a 14-6 lead with just 47 seconds left in the first half.
The onside kick followed and set up the 45-yard strike by Jeffries to Haddock. Luray went up 20-6, now with just 35 seconds left in the half. Clarke’s next drive stalled after five plays.
The Bulldogs opened up the second half with a three-and-out. Clarke followed that with an 18-play drive covering 71 yards and consuming 9:42 of the third quarter. The Eagles leaned on Ferrell and Mina-Hamerman, as well as quarterback Mason Jarvis, to put together the best drive of the night. The slow march was aided by two Luray penalties — a personal foul that gave Clarke a first down, and a pass interference call that set the Eagles up at first and goal from the five. Ferrell would finish the job and make the score 20-13 heading into the fourth.
Luray dominated the fourth quarter — scoring twice behind a tough 12-yard run from Jenkins (ending a nine-play drive; two-point conversion by Jeffries) and a 29-yard sprint by Cyphert (capping a three-play drive; two-point conversion by Cody Hoke) to go up 36-13 with 4:22 remaining. Cubbage then made his interception, and the Luray defense was able to contain the Eagles’ running game until the clock hit zero.
The Eagles only completed one pass for 21 yards during the game, but benefitted from two pass interference calls. They gained a total of 276 yards, with 255 coming on the ground. Clarke picked up 14 first downs, committed one turnover (in addition to giving up the onside kick) and was penalized five times during the game.
Although the Bulldogs shut down the Eagles’ offense in the final frame and only allowed two scores on the night, Coach Hamilton still sees ways for his defense to get even better.
“The kids have got to start having faith in reading their keys. If you watch game film you will see there will be some hesitation…cause they’re trying to read their keys, but then they look in the backfield and they get distracted by all that motion,” he said. “We tell them just focus on your keys, if you see this guy do this then you have to attack, don’t hesitate…that little bit of hesitation gave them that long run they had down here where we pinned them down on the two after that great punt from Caleb, but that hesitation opened up that seam and that kid took advantage of it.
“There were [other times] that we were out of position because we were hesitating on a read,” Coach Hamilton continued. “Once they get guys in there just go. I mean if they bounce it, they bounce it, but you can’t let them dictate, we need to dictate.”
That philosophy should hold through this week’s practice sessions as the Bulldogs prepare to hit Panther Field on Friday night and face Page County’s wildcat offense with the likes of Logan Richards and the speedy Braxton Pettit.
“We match up well [with Page], once again we need to read their keys and see who does what when they run certain plays and just get that drilled in the kids…and you can throw records out the window, so it’s Page County, it’s always been a tough game. James May does a good job down there with his kids. Braxton Pettit [is a] hell of an athlete. I know him from track, so if he gets out on the outside, he is gone…so we gotta make sure we keep him under wraps.”
The Bulldogs are currently ranked third in the Class 1, Region B standings behind Sussex and Altavista. The region quarterfinals get underway Friday, Nov. 14.
Up next, Luray (5-4) travels just south to round out the regular season with the “Battle of 340” as the Bulldogs take on the Panthers of Page County (2-7) for a 7 p.m. kickoff on Friday, Nov. 7 at Buddy Comer Stadium. Clarke County (1-8) finishes its regular season in Berryville as the Eagles host the Mountaineers of Madison County (3-6) on Thursday, Nov. 6.
For schedules, rosters and results, check the Bull Run District website.
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