Parry McCluer Stumbles At JR

Parry McCluer Stumbles At JR Big Third Quarters Lifts Knights Over Blues

It looked like the first road game of the season for Parry McCluer’s football team.

The Blues were whistled for 15 penalties in the contest, and James River exploded for 21 third-quarter points to hand Parry McCluer its first loss of the season, 35-7, last Friday night in Buchanan.

“We aren’t going to win every ball game,” said Brockenbrough. “[We] know we didn’t play well. But we have to be able to handle a big moment, even when it’s going bad.”

In a first half marred by penalties, the Blues never had a chance to get the running game going. Parry McCluer accrued 14 penalties in the first half, and as a result, PM was constantly facing long-yardage situations. With that, Parry McCluer had only 12 rushing attempts before halftime, and three of them were scrambles from quarterback Nathan Glass in an attempt to avoid the James River rush.

“At the end of the day, we didn’t line up right, and on a couple of the [penalties] we were provoked offsides,” said Brockenbrough. “We have to clean it up. We take responsibility for our actions, and we are going to move forward.

“My playbook gets awfully small when I have to start digging into firstand- 15,” the PM coach continued. “We had to throw it on first down, and that’s OK, but we want to finish the series the way we want to do it, not being dictated by the sticks.”

Still the Blues, who finished the game with 132 rushing yards on only 26 tries, were able to keep it close in the first two quarters.

James River opened the scoring with a 37-yard TD run from running back Gavin Binns, and they threatened to add another score late in the first quarter. However, a touchdown was called back by an ineligible receiver downfield penalty, and the Blues were able to force an incompletion on fourth down to end that threat.

Then, late in the second period, Parry McCluer’s Zavion Dunn intercepted a pass from James River’s Merit Hammons to set the Blues up at their own 41-yard line, where this time PM was able to overcome the penalties.

An illegal formation violation followed immediately by another 5-yard penalty left the Blues facing first down and 20. On third and 14, Glass dropped back and found Parker Snider wide open over the middle. Snider did the rest, racing the distance to complete a 63-yard scoring strike. When Quentin Rosser booted the extra point, the two teams went into halftime tied at 7-7.

“For us to dial in and stay focused was pretty big,” Brockenbrough said. “They were leaving us underneath. Glass did a great job of hitting Snider on that dig route.”

Glass finished the game with 15 completions on 32 attempts for 175 yards and the touchdown. Snider hauled in seven of those passes for 96 yards, while Jacob Shafter finished with four receptions for 43 yards.

After halftime, however, it was a different game. James River scored on its first three possessions of the third quarter to put the game away.

Binns ignited the explosion with a 44 yard scoring sprint on just the second play of the second half. Sam Wilson added a 1-yard TD plunge at the 6:59 mark of the period, and late in the quarter, Binns ripped off a 73-yard run to push the ball to the PM 8-yard line, later capping the drive with a 3-yard touchdown.

“When we went in at halftime, I think we were mentally fired up, but we were spent,” Brockenbrough said. “They came out and scored in the first 45 seconds, and then we ended up getting down 21-7. We still had a chance, but mentally, the kids were spent. We have to do a better job preparing them coming out of halftime. We have to do a better job in the second half as a team.”

While the Blues were able to hold other James River ball carriers to negative yardage in the game, they could not shut down Binns, who finished the game with 19 carries for 297 yards and three touchdowns. Hammons completed seven of 11 passes for 108 yards, capping the scoring with a 21-yard TD pass to Bently Painter in the fourth quarter.

“[Binns] is a special athlete,” the PM coach said. “We went from squaring him up to trying to ankle tackle him, and once we did that, we played into his game. Up front we didn’t get a good push in the second half, but that kid is talented.”

The Blues will hit the road again this Friday night for the second of three straight contests away from the friendly confines of Bobby Williams Field, taking on Stonewall Jackson in Quicksburg. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

“We need to come out Friday night with [James River] not on our mind anymore,” said the PM coach. “I look forward to Friday night’s contest at Stonewall; I look forward to a good football game.”

PM 0 7 0 0 7 JR 7 0 21 7 35 First Quarter JR – Binns 37 run (Taylor kick) Second Quarter PM – Snider 63 p. from Glass (Rosser kick) Third Quarter JR – Binns 44 run (Taylor kick) JR – Wilson 1 run (Taylor kick) JR – Binns 3 run (Taylor kick) Fourth Quarter JR – Painter 21 p. from Hammons (Taylor kick) RUSHING PM – Glass 6-54, Snider 10-35, Shafer 8-24, Z. Dunn 2-19.Totals – 26-132. JR – Binns 19-297, Wilson 3-6, Team 2-(-3), Hammons 9-(-9). Totals – 33-293.

PASSING PM – Glass 15-32-1-175-0. JR – Hammons 7-11-1-108-1. RECEIVING PM – Snider 7-96, Shafer 4-43, Z. Dunn 1-16, Brockenbrough 1-9, Conner 1-6, Rosser 1-5. Totals – 15-175. JR – Painter 3-44, Merchant 2-30, Stewart 1-19, Daniels 1-15.Totals – 7-108.