Page puts together 19-play drive in first half, but loses momentum after that
By Randy Arrington
SHENANDOAH, Aug. 28 — The Page County Panthers struggled on both sides of the ball in their season opener against the Raptors of Rocktown High School on Friday night at Buddy Comer Stadium. Page fell 31-0 in the non-district matchup, after only gaining 80 yards of offense and failing to stop a talented dual-threat quarterback that lead the Raptors to a 17-0 halftime lead.
“We didn’t really see it happening that way [tonight],” PCHS head coach Joe May said after the game. “They had a really good game plan against our offense. We just didn’t execute very well tonight.”
That game plan involves a heavy dose of junior Logan Richards diving straight ahead into a packed line that heavily resembled a rugby scrum. Out of 42 offensive plays from the line of scrimmage, Richards carried the ball 20 times for a total of 52 yards (2.6 ypc). The Panthers only attempted two passes all night and went 1-for-2 for one yard through the air.
However, after a quick three-and-out on their first possession, Page put together a long drive on their second possession that last nearly an entire quarter. Yet, after 19 grinding plays on the ground, the drive only traveled 58 yards — and ended with no points following a failed 21-yard field goal attempt. The Page offense would only gain a little more than 20 yards the rest of the night.
“The type of offense we run some guys get kinda wore out…I think we were getting a little beat up. We were planning on wearing them down, and I think we wore ourselves down a little bit maybe,” Coach May said. “They adjusted. They have a lot of athletes that fly around. We tried to keep it kind of simple and do what we do…that’s how our game plan is supposed to work, and for a quarter and a half, our game plan worked. A little stop here, a mistake there… We can talk about how we capped off that 19-play drive…we ended up with nothing, and that really took the wind out of our sails I think.”
The Panthers would only run a dozen offensive plays in the second half and gain a total of only five yards.
Meanwhile, the Raptors leaned on the talents of senior quarterback Keyon Benton, a versatile dual-threat quarterback who went 4-for-5 through the air for 95 yards and ran for another 58 yards on eight carries — all in the first half. Benton stepped aside in the second half, as junior Cordell Stewart stepped in to run the offense. Rocktown generated 174 yards of offense in the first half and scored on their first three possessions.
Rocktown scored in just four plays on its first possession with junior Kingston Miller Rodriguez running into the end zone from eight yards out to go up 7-0 with 9:21 left in the first quarter. Page County’s 19-play drive followed and lasted into the second quarter, before the Raptors took over and launched a 10-play drive of their own, ending with a five-yard touchdown run by Benton to go up 14-0 with 4:40 left in the half.
Page County picked up one first down on the next drive due to a Rocktown offsides penalty, but turned the ball over on downs. The Raptors then went 28 yards in five plays before junior Samuel Tongen connected on a 27-yard field goal to put the score at 17-0 at the half.
Rocktown substituted freely in the second half, but still put up two more scores — a 14-yard touchdown run by Stewart on their first possession in the third quarter, and a four-yard touchdown run by junior Peyton White in their first possession of the fourth quarter to cap the scoring at 31-0.
Each team had only one turnover during the game — both fumbles in the second half — and penalties were roughly even, with Page drawing seven flags compared to 10 for Rocktown.
One noticeable difference from last season’s Page County offense was the absence of senior speedster Braxton Pettit. As one of the best track and field hurdlers in the state, Pettit’s speed is undeniable — and yet, he only touched the ball twice durign Friday night’s game. The senior picked up 11 yards on his first carry in the first half, and then lost seven yards during his only carry in the second half.
According to Coach May, Pettit got a late start in preparation for the season.
“He was late deciding to play…he didn’t play in the two scrimmages…from my, morality or whatever you want to call it, I can’t put that kid out here in contact when he hasn’t had a lot of contact…he’s a little behind everybody else, not in what he knows…but guys who were here the whole time, I think they deserve the spots,” said Coach May.
The PCHS coach acknowledged that with potential college interest in Pettit for track, playing football wasn’t at the forefront of his thoughts this summer.
“He started off saying he was going to be a manager…then he started attending practice, but not a lot of practice….he was late coming in,” Coach May continued. “He’s got other things going on.”
However, as the season goes on, the Panthers plan to utilize the speedy senior a lot more, according to Coach May.
Defensively, despite the 31 points they gave up Friday night, the PCHS coach says he saw some positives.
“Last year alignment and assignment was our problem, we never quite got to the technique part because we were so bad in understanding what we were doing…I’m really pleased tonight that my guys understood the concept,” Coach May said. “Missed tackles killed us tonight…I told them we probably had over 20 missed tackles. We hit [Benton} in the backfield several times.”
“We’ve always got to try to find the positives to take out of it, but I’m disappointed in how the game played out,” the Panthers’ coach said. “I think we are a better team.”
Next up, Page County (0-1) will host Parry McCluer at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 4, while Rocktown (1-0) travels to Staunton next Friday night.
For the Page County Panthers’ full 2026 schedule,
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