Colonels shut out Raiders after opening kickoff return

APPOMATTOX — Appomattox could not have asked for a better start.

Playing host to Dogwood District rival Altavista on a bitingly cold night, the Raiders put six points on the board without sending the offensive unit onto the field when Neal Thomas returned the opening kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown. They even held Altavista’s Johnny Wimbish in check in the first quarter. However, before the final horn sounded, Wimbish would score a touchdown on defense, plus a pair on offense to lead the Colonels to a 19-6 road victory.

Both teams traded possessions throughout the first quarter with neither team threatening to score. Wimbish and the Colonels finally broke the plane midway through the second when an Appomattox pitch was fumbled by tailback Joe Reed. Reed would fall on his fumble, but the ball squirted away and into the hands of Wimbish, who ran untouched 16 yards for the score and a one-point (7-6) lead.

Appomattox went three-and-out on its ensuing drive, again failing to solve a Colonels’ defense that might as well have been a Rubik’s Cube. The Raiders had just 135 yards of total offense. Colonels’ head coach Mike Scharnus praised his defensive coordinator for devising a solid scheme.

“I give credit to Mike Revis, he’s our defensive coordinator and he had a great game plan and then the kids executed,” Scharnus said. “They were disciplined on who they had on the dive and the pitch and the quarterback and we might have had a few busts tonight but we didn’t have any that resulted in big plays.”

The Raiders’ ground game produced just 73 yards on 30 carries, a result of strong defensive line play, according to Raiders coach Ben Martin.

“I think just across the board we didn’t play well offensively. We never established the run at all. They beat us up front all night long,” Martin said.

The Colonels would extend their one-point lead before halftime after Wimbish took a direct snap between the tackles and scampered free for a 60-yard score.

The Raiders’ Rico Rose would return the kickoff to the 43 and Kenny Scott found Rose on third-and-long on a short pass that Rose took to the Colonels’ 35. With time winding down, though, three straight pass attempts from Scott went incomplete, leaving the Raiders on the short end of a 13-6 halftime score.

With their ground game stalled, the Raiders tried to beat the Colonels through the air in the second half, but again, an offense that has looked so in sync over the past weeks sputtered.

“Even when we turned to the pass and started throwing the ball, whether it was defenders in our quarterback’s face or bad throws by our quarterback or receivers (who) didn’t catch the ball … (it was) a group effort,” Martin said.

The Colonels rode the strong legs of Chris Clark for much of the second half, twice punching the ball inside the five only to be stuffed by the Raiders. Clark finished with 21 carries for 86 yards. The penultimate nail in the Raiders’ coffin came after a weak 10-yard punt gave the Colonels the ball on the Raiders’ 30. On first down, Wimbish hit Jarrod Hunt on a quick pass that Hunt turned into a 30-yard touchdown. Wimbish, who finished with 100 total yards and three touchdowns, credited the steady play of the Colonels to a renewed team focus that has been present since Altavista fell to Gretna earlier in the season.

“The Gretna game was really a wake-up for the team. We were really hyped but now we’re starting to have a new team motto to just stay even,” Wimbish said.