2023 High School Football Week 1

Scott Lowe and Dan Joyce break down the OT thriller from Broadway and go over scores and stats from other games around the Valley District. Plus a preview of what’s coming up to kick off the Labor Day weekend.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Well, welcome back. After alengthy break. Valley District High School Football
Podcast is back. High School Footballis back. Isn't that great? We
had some hum Dingers. I'm tellingsome humdingers for fans of hum Dingers and
barn Stormers and whatever. It wasgames and unexpected results and some thrill of

(00:26):
victory and agony defeat, and wesaw it all in our game. We
did. We saw everything at BroadwayHigh School. I'm Dan Joyce's Scott Low.
We're doing it again. We appreciateyou tuning in each and every Friday
night to w k C y AM one oh seven nine FM to hear
our Valley District High School football gameof the week. And as Scott said,
we were in Broadway to open theseason and they took on those fly

(00:49):
and Flucos from Fluvannah County. Yeah, and correct me if I'm wrong.
I don't think we've ever done aFlucos game. I don't know right,
well, I know I used towork in that area. Yeah I did.
I have called their games before andover there, and I think in
my thirty one years, I've neverdone one. So that was kind of
interesting. Always wanted to ask,what's a Fluco. I still don't know

(01:12):
what a fluco is. They didn'thave a nickname. I know this story
cool. They did not have anickname. It was just Fluvanna County High
School. They could have gone withlike Hokies, they could have gone with
anything, and they were it waseither a basketball or a football game.
And the radio announcer didn't know whatto call them, and just call them

(01:33):
the Flying Flucos for Fluvanna County ofFluvannah County and that works and that's stuck.
So and the school was like,yeah, do it. That's the
story. I was told, that'sthat's why you know Harrisonburg. It's changing
their name to the Harrisonburg Harrisonburgers comingout. Well, next year we'll have
the Rocktown Raptors. That's right.I can't. I want to see I

(01:56):
want to see a really cool logofor that. It's gonna be. I
want to see a real colors.It's red and black. Okay, And
we know they they apparently have anartificial tour field over there. We've been
checking it out. Very press boxwhere they have tiny press box chest like
it Harrisonburg High Schools. We'll sayno more. They didn't they bet they'll
have a great bathroom facility. Well, Harrisonburg Harrisburg High School is the finest

(02:19):
bathroom facilities, and the Gobblers andBroadway have new bathroom facilities. Yes,
and they've done a lot up there, like you said, I mean,
there's the new ticket booth, thenew concession stand, the new restroom facility,
the all new windows in the inthe press box, and that's I
mean, that's probably I'd say betweenthat and TA the two most spacious that

(02:42):
boxes easts got a lot of space. You're right, yeah, think No,
this is like a good podcast whereyou know, at some point people
want us to talk about football,but we just talk about ourselves and I
love that. We should do that. You know, who, don't you
want to more about it? No, wait a minute, we'll go on
Veggie Springwells. Last night they werefantastic Broadway. I'll tell you what happened
with Broadway. They got up twelveto nothing and they messed around. To

(03:07):
be honest, they just couldn't closethe deal. They were up twelve to
nothing in the first half, andthey looked like the far superior team to
a team that looked like it hadgone oh and ten last year, right,
yeah, I would, I wouldagree. I also though, I
mean, you can't ignore the factthat Fluvannah had three touchdowns called back on

(03:29):
penalties, and I mean could havevery easily dominated that game, but they
took so many penalties. This gamewent to many penalties, but they did.
They didn't let him get them down. They didn't say, oh,
i'll shucks, there's another one waylet go. Instead, they just kept
grinding it out and Broadway kept leavingthem in the game there until in the

(03:52):
fourth quarter they were able to tieit up at twenty. The game goes
to overtime, and what an excitingfinish we had. And it didn't go
good for the home team, Broadwayand the home fans. And I'm sure
that they learned some lessons, probablyhad a couple of looks at the film
yesterday, but oh yeah, yeah, and it's unfortunate because, like you
said, they just couldn't close thedeal. Yeah, and then at the

(04:13):
very end there, I thought Broadway'sdefense played very well, right, very
stout. At the end of thegame when it was all tied up,
they just like, okay, yeah, go ahead, Yeah, everybody's beat.
Yeah. They were exhausted and Imean, they weren't letting them score,
but they weren't able to stop them. And Fluvanna in coming back.

(04:35):
You could see them build their confidence. Second half, took significantly fewer penalties
right than they did in the firsthalf. I can imagine what that halftime
talk was about and the language thatwas used. But they they you could
tell they started to believe in themselves, like, you know, we can
we can do this. We didn'twin a game last year, but we

(04:56):
can win this game here tonight.And they did it. We're still in
it. We did get a chanceto see the newcoming quarterback. His name
is Uriah Rutan. He's only asophomorye. He's got seen your rider post
who's getting recruited by several colleges.They're in effective one two pass combination and
they were effective in the first halfbut not so much in the second half.

(05:17):
And a good running back for theGobblers this year, Hunter Honeycott.
He's formidable. And the way thatBroadway scored, they got it done on
special teams. Blocked a punt coveredin the end zone by Mason Dellinger and
then after that, also in thefirst half, a thirty one yard rider
post catch from Rutan and Broadway wasup twelve to nothing and they looked dominant

(05:39):
at that point. But just beforehalftime, the quarterback for Fluvanna his name
is Willie Lambert, through a twentyseven yard pass to make it twelve to
six. By the way, ifyou've figured out that this is in multiples
of six, yeah, nobody couldkick an extra point. Rutana hit Ennis
for a TV in the third quarter, and then Broadway led twenty to six,

(06:00):
but they couldn't hold on. Likewe're talking about a couple of TVs
and two point conversion by Fluvannah thatput it into overtime. Broadway scored in
two downs, right, honey,kit, right up the middle, he
gets in the end zone. Theykicked the extra point. Finally they kick
one and then on the other thing. So in the overtime, everybody gets
to possess the ball at least oncefrom the ten yard line. Broadway scored

(06:24):
in two plays, kicked an extrapoint. Son out's up to Fluvanna to
at least match that to kick itto another overtime, so they can't go
for a field goal. I don'tthink they would have been able to go
for a field goal, to behonest, but they just ran it right
up to get one play. MarcusDickerson goes in and they decide, we're
going to decide it on this play. If we get in, we win.
If we don't get in, welose. It's a long bus ride

(06:46):
home, but at least we camethat close, and Marcus Dickerson got close
and then extra effort put it infor the two point conversion, and they
lost their minds. They did likeit great championship. It was great,
and I know I shouldn't be likecelebrating that Jefferson County team came in and
beat beat a Valley District team,but it was really cool. Those kids.

(07:12):
This the pure joy And then youknow, like you said, like
they won a national championship, butafter a defeated season, not an undefeated
season, a defeated season that hadto have felt so good, and they'll
try to build on that going forward. It'll be interesting to see what the
Flucos do the rest of the year. Well, on the good side for
the Gobblers, honeycutt past the Gobblerseighty two yards on sixteen carries. He

(07:34):
had a touchdown post five receptions,seventy three yards and Rutan was eleven of
twenty five. But he's also arunning threat one hundred and forty four yards
two touchdowns, and he also rushedfor forty yards to The Gobblers will be
back. They'll have some problems tosolve as they go forward. No,
I was impressed with what I sawdefensively first off. I thought their defense

(07:58):
was just really really solid. ButRoutan at quarterback, you can tell he's
an athlete. Yep, he isan athlete. He is fast, he
is agile, he's got a goodarm, he's thrown across his body,
running on the field and completing passes. I think they just need first game.

(08:18):
You just got to settle in.Yep. I think second game is
gonna be a big, big improvementfor his leadership is going to grow.
You know, right now, hekind of looks like a sophomore quarterback,
and I want to see what helooks like in game ten. You know.
Yeah, and absolutely he looked alittle bit like a sophomore. Well
one coach saying we're gonna win itor lose it on one play. That
was also the story as Riverheads sevenstraight championships eleven championships in recent times and

(08:46):
Riverheads fell to Central, and itwas much like what we saw when the
game was scoreless at halftime. RiverheadsAustin robertson the third quarter, he scores
on a twenty four yard touchdown run, they get the extra point. It's
seven or nothing. It goes intothe fourth quarter. Central had the length
of the field to go, thelength of the field to go, and

(09:09):
Riverheads has such a great defense,but they were just gassed and so was
Central for them for the sounds likeit was a real slugfest. Yeah,
it was a defensive game totally fortwo very offensive teams. I bet you
the rest of the season we're seeingthese teams hang the uties, but between
Riverheads we're talking fifties. And alsoit's worth noting Riverheads seventh straight championships in

(09:33):
Class one their Class two now andthey go up against a formidable team that
went to the state championship game lastyear Central. So it was a great
way season. Is Central win statechampionship? I think they lost in the
state championship game, but still,yeah, no, that is interesting with
them moving up to Class two,well, and I mean they might not
dominate the way they have in thepast. They go, we'll see it's

(09:56):
right because a whole new division forthem. For Central, they go eighty
nine yards and thirteen plays and scorewith twenty five seconds left. A senior
got it done, David Davon Ridgeleyand then coach Mike you's been there forever
and he says, we're tired,we ain't going to overtime. Same thing

(10:18):
as in the other game. We'regonna win it or lose it on this
play and they handed it to thesenior Tyler Forbes and with that two point
conversion, Central defeated Riverheads. Canyou imagine an oh and one Riverheads team
after the fifty five game winning streakthat they had over previous year. No,
I mean, they're just such astrong program. And I remember in

(10:41):
the press box as we were gettingscores, like Mark Griffin from the DNR
was helping us out get some scores. Yeah, and he hands over and
it says, you know, RiverheadsCentral zero zero at the half. I'm
like, what we were talking about? It, Like what's going on?
And they're like, okay, wellnow we've got to score. It's seven
to zero. Yeah, okay,okay, but still, what's going on.

(11:03):
Riverheads hadn't hung fifty on them yet, right, Yeah, Like it
doesn't compute. You're just so usedto you know, at halftime it's forty
seven to nothing. Yeah, butthey're going to be that way against Central.
But nonetheless, I mean you expectRiverheads to just keep rolling as it
was Riverheads falls to Central. Whenwe do our DNR rankings for the shen

(11:28):
Valley seven, Central is going tobe on time. I have mine with
me here. I want to discussit with you at some point because I
don't know. I don't know whatI don't know at this point one weekend,
Well you can, you can,and it's only after one game.
How much could we know? Butwe know Wilson can score some points.
Fifty five to eight winners over Charlottesvilleand they got it going quickly, started

(11:54):
the game with a seventy five yardkickoff return and never looked back. Braden's
Tyree remember his name from last year? Four TV's in the game. Wow,
okay, yeah, No. Afriend of mine has a couple of
kids on the Wilson team. Yeah, so she was pretty pumped Friday night.
Yeah. Yeah, the offense andhere's another team that's gonna have a
lot of offense this year, andI'm gonna stay right here. In Week

(12:16):
one, a team that has thestate championship in their eyes Turner Ashby in
the nineties, fifty one twenty two. You know they they're district champions coming
back. This is a non districtgame against Fort. But Fort has had
Trey Miller, who's been a greatrunner, a great thrower. He's turned
that program around, he really has. But they held him in check.

(12:37):
Did the Turner Ashby nights they wonfifty one twenty two. Michael shank is
their QB. He can run,he can pass. He threw for one
hundred and thirteen yards and three touchdowns. He ran for almost one hundred more.
Oh boy, MIKEA. Matthews seventythree yards on only three carries.
Now you know the story on MichaelMatthews. Yeah, the South Carolina baseball

(12:58):
recruits apparently signed at eighth grade.He's a letter of intent. But now
the big boys of college football arelooking at this guy in Santa Sure you
want to play baseball? And bythe big boys, I'm talking about North
Carolina, West Virginia, Jacksonville State, Virginia Tech who were interested I think

(13:20):
he's already been offered. Oh,those are the schools that have offered him.
Penn State, South Carolina and Virginiaare also showing interest in the Wow,
you know, and he only carriedthe ball three times. But it's
exciting that we've got a couple ofkids that are D one prospects High Valley
District this year. In this case, when you're talking about Michael Matthews,

(13:41):
yeah, you can check him out. By the way, if anybody is
built for nil and high school,it's guy. And just to clarify,
the Virginia High School League has said, we didn't invent this. Nil is
here and we just want to giveyou some regulations so the kids. It's
possible to see a high school kiddoing a commercial for a car dealership.

(14:03):
Now that's amazing, I know,but it's it's where we are at is
amazing. Bo Baylor had a workmanlike fifty. We know he's capable of
a whole more. Like I said, Trey Miller was held in check.
But TA starts off their season witha win, and Mike and Matthews will
be keeping an eye on. We'llhave them on the air. Not this
Friday, but the week after them. And you know, it's also I

(14:24):
mean, it's it's nice. Andwe talked about this in the booth.
Fort Defiance has not had a goodrun recently. Yep. Last year it
really started to turn around. Theylost fifty five twenty two, but they
put twenty two up in the past, they weren't doing that. I'm going
for a winning record for Fort Yeah. As long as Trey Miller stays healthy.
This is a team that can winsome football games. Yeah. No,

(14:46):
But it's just it's nice to seethem. They've turned it around and
they're they're headed in the right directionright now. And you just sometimes I
feel bad for the schools that justcan't seem to get the football program together.
Well, they had a couple offor years. Yeah, So I'm
just last year was fun to seethem competitive. Yeah, and and and
there they were, uh and andhad every reason to believe the game was

(15:07):
a little bit closer at halftime,had everybody really to believe that they could
stay up with Turner Ashby. Butta is, I just think they're the
team to beat this year. Itmight be, but if those three guns
stay healthy, the two Micah's andBo Baylor, They're the team to beat.
I can't see anybody locally standing upto them. Maybe spots would.

(15:31):
Yeah, well we're gonna talk aboutthem. We're gonna see them coming up
this Friday night. But Spotswood ledthe whole game until a touchdown with forty
six seconds left gave Russberg a twentyeight to twenty four win. So that
game was another one of those slobberknockers. Uh Ellian Brown a couple of
touchdowns. We're seeing him develop asa quarterback now, a sophomore. Right

(15:54):
John Craig his big receiver. Hehad eighty one yards on three catches,
including some long one and Parker ConstableGood running back one hundred and sixty one
yards and Dale Shifflets Blazers opened theseason with the loss. They let it
slip away in the last minute ofthe game. Russberg stole one there,
but we get Dale Shiflets Blazers goingto Western Albamorrow on Friday nine. Yeah,

(16:15):
no, I'm really excited about that. As you said, I used
to cover games over there, andso I haven't been to Western Albemarle in
some time, and they used todo this thing. Yeah that I always
just thought was hilarious. They wouldn'twarm up on the field. They warmed
up on their practice field spots.What has done that before in another area?
And as the other team warmed upon the field, they played Enya.

(16:40):
Yeah they played bad music, yeah, slow, sappy, playing Enya
songs. And we would be sittingthere at the games, you know,
doing our pregame showing oh my god, because it's it's insufferable. It's interesting.
Usually they're playing with the kids wantto hear, you know, for
you and me, one of ourfavorites was going to Riverhead and you're not
just classic country. We're talking fiftiesand sixties classic country. Yeah, yeah,

(17:06):
we're talking the prime Johnny Cash,little George Jones. Some Elvis,
yeah, certainly got some Elvis nowBroadway. Broadway plays music towards my musical
taste. It's a lot of metaland hard rock, and so I get
into it when I'm at Broadway andthey have fun with the music. The
timeouts, the waiting is the hardestparty you're conferring, you know, they

(17:29):
back up the dump truck. Yes, as you know, if the other
team gets a penalty and has togo back so many yards, I get
a kick out of that. Alot of found anytime we go to Broadway,
well we aren't that on the way. As you mentioned Western alb Borrow,
we'll see them Spotswood leading the wholegame until that last minute, so
they've got something to prove. Yeah, and Western Friday hounded last week by
Cave Spring. It was like fortyfour to three or something. Yeah,

(17:52):
so they're gonna be looking to exactsome kind of revenge, I would imagine.
And Spotswood, I know, isgoing to be straighted after losing that
game in the final minute. SoI think we could have a nice little
tilt right night. They've got somethingto prove, and like you say,
Spotswood and Turner Ash, we mightbe the class of the district. We
can move on and talk about someother games. Let's just run down some
scores for you. A Mountain ViewGenerals can't look like they might have another

(18:15):
tough year. Fifty four to eighthome loss to Bath County Madison County,
a fifteen to fourteen come from behindwin of the Stanton Storm of coach Michael
Bell. Storm has Braylon Fields backthis year and he got a t day.
And Mark Jafrac, who is justzippy. I mean, you talk
about a guy, it's got somespeed. So we will we'll be looking

(18:37):
at the Stanton a little bit lateron this year. But that's a tough
way for them to begin their season. Yeah, let's run down some other
scores before I get to the thingthat we probably got to talk about.
Washington West Virginia over page forty nineto six, King William over Stewart's drafts
seven to six. Unusual for Stewart'sdraft to start out the year with a
loss. Gap lost to James River. Another one point game, thirteen to

(18:59):
twelve. Waynesboro lost to alle Ganeythirty five to seven. Would you say
Allegany did to begin the Okay,So they're a new school, right they
they've merged two schools first one school, first game first this way. Yeah,
first play, opening kickoff, duderuns it back ninety eight yards for
touchdown. Pretty cool, that's Imean, like I said, you are
a school legend for life. Yes, your pictures going on the wall.

(19:21):
Yeah, Like when they have thetrophy case in the new school, that
football with your name on it,it's probably gonna opening game, opening kickoff,
ninety eight yard touchdown run pretty awesome. Monticello over william In Roal forty
two twenty eight, Strasburg meat Skylineeighteen sixteen, Clark County over rock Ridge
forty two seven. We keep itone on Clark County because they're in the
shen Valley seventh potential. And itwas Lay over East Rock correct, lay

(19:44):
over East Rock, and now EastRock beat lay the wrong. Maybe you
had a right. I have Parkreceiver six of thirteen, one hundred and
twenty five yards Xavie Brown for thefirst quarter seven four yard TV and Brown
for forty four yard or in thefirst half. Look that up. I'm
sure we know what we're talking about. I always think that you probably know

(20:08):
more than me. So, buthere's here's what we can agree on.
Unfortunately, it looks like another badyear for Harrisonburg. They had no offense
last year. They had no offenseFriday night against Millbrook they lost forty to
nothing. It's really tough. QuarterbackJJ engels Back led the Streets with seventy
six rushing yards on nine carries,three of six in the passing game for

(20:32):
only twenty eight yards, and Handleyis next for the Blue Streaks. Yeah,
it's just bad man, yea,and you feel that, you feel
bad. You don't know what's goingon in Harrisonburg. Maybe they can turn
it around. I'm sure those kidsare out there practicing hard, giving it
they're all, but for the lastcouple of years, the Blue Streaks just
haven't had it and they just didn'tlook like they had it on Friday night

(20:52):
either. Yeah, I know That'ssomething that we've talked about before, is
in past years the numbers for Harrisonburgin their football program, we're just huge,
yea, and the numbers are reallydown. I've got to think that
has something to do with it.You know, for whatever reason, kids
are choosing not to play football atsome schools and overall, You're right,

(21:15):
teams coaches are commenting on having afew fewer kids come out this year as
well. And also, I mean, one of the things I think that
contributes to it, and I've saidthis before, like you look at schools
like Waynesboro and Fort and Mountain Viewwho have not had a lot of success
over the last few years, andthey were getting to a point where they
didn't always have enough players and thenthings started to turn around. They get

(21:37):
somebody on the team who's a betterathlete, maybe they pick up a couple
of wins. Suddenly there's more peopleinterested. Waynesboro is a much better program
than it's been in recent years.Fort Defiance a much better program. We
called the game a couple of yearsago were Page County really didn't have enough
kids to even compete in the game, and somehow they played anyway, You're
right. They it's recommended you don'ttake to even practice less than twenty five

(22:00):
and I think at that point theyhad twenty three. Yeah, somebody gets
sick, another guy gets injured,and how do you even practice? Yeah,
but then all of a sudden theystarted winning somehow, and all of
a sudden they're a decent they're adecent program, and they've got the numbers
back. So I don't know,I don't know. Cycle. That's what
they always tell me. It's cyclical. Okay, Before we move on to

(22:21):
the games coming up on Fridays,I will let you know I did a
quick check and it was East Rockcoming up with Winds. Okay, we're
looking covering their games this year asalways. Enjoy a trip up to East
Rock here. If you're new towhat we do here, we cover predominantly
the Rockingham County teams brought Yeah,okay, I got yeah, it's it's

(22:45):
it's a weird one because I livein Stanton, but you know, there's
Augusta County and I'm like, welldo it Do I live in the county
or do I live in the city. I don't know. I think I
live. I've moved recently, soI live in Waynesboro City. So yeah,
okay, yeah, we're a gustcity ends though, see me and
you are. I wish they werestill Basic City. Who well, I
live in Basic City, so awesome. I can tell you that we are

(23:07):
rough and tumble Basic City ers.I would love to be in Basic City.
I just like the name of it. We're just brawlers. Yeah,
see the Basic City Brawlers. Wouldthat be an amazing steam name in the
new high school in Waynesboro. Yeah, the Basic City Brawlers get the Valley
League team to change their name.Hey, let's run down the games we
have coming up for you on Fridaynights, dandons. Everybody's on the roads.

(23:30):
Take us at Rockbridge. Monticello istaken on Waynesboro Broadway, travels to
Strasbourg and East Rock has Central NecksSo that's gonna be East Rock and Central,
two of the three teams that havebeaten Riverheads, right and the most
recent ers, Yeah, other thanLord Botot. Yeah, so there's three

(23:51):
teams that have beat them in thelast five years point and so those two
are going to be battling. Thatshould be a good game. And Wilson
put up a whole lot of points, so did Turner Ashby. Those two
teams meet at Wilson. That'll bea good one. Friday night, Laray
travels to Buffalo Gap pages at Bathand Fort. Is that Alleganey Stuart's Draft
takes on Surrey, Riverheads goes toTazwell, Harrisonburg has a Saturday tilt with

(24:15):
Hanley, and we're going to Westernalbamorrow. Yeah. I'm looking forward to
the Like I said, a littletrip over the mountain to croz A and
we're coming on a little bit earlierfor you this year, a little bit
of extra pre game for you,So hope you'll join us beginning at six
thirty on Friday night. Yeah,I'm looking forward to it and looking forward
to what should be a really goodfootball game. All right, come on

(24:37):
over and have a beer with meat Basic City. Okay, we'll do
it. Thanks for tuning in tothe Valley District High School Football Podcast.
He's Scott Loo. I'm Dan Joyce. We will see you Friday night at six thirty