Miscues keep Devils winless

RUSTBURG — The first two weeks were unfortunate for Rustburg. Friday night? Just downright cruel.

The Red Devils lost their first two games to Heritage and Halifax by a combined six points. Against Martinsville, every-thing went wrong from the start. Fumbles. Poorly thrown laterals. Blocked punts. Martinsville caught every one of those breaks in a 42-22 victory, building a 42-6 lead early in the second half before Rustburg scored two fourth-quarter touch-downs.

“Pretty much everything went good for us, and it’s about time,” said second-year Martinsville coach Matt Foutz, who previously coached at Chatham. “We’ve been catching the bad end of some breaks. So maybe the tide is turning.”

The Bulldogs, who led Gretna at halftime last week before losing 44-21, took control early against Rustburg. Chris Scott returned the opening kickoff 37 yards and Marquill Eggleston scored the first of his three touchdowns, culminating a six-play, 50-yard drive with a 1-yard TD run.

Rustburg (0-3) responded well, moving the ball into Martinsville territory on its first offensive possession. But on 3rd and 4 from the Bulldog 38, quarterback Tevin Cobbs tried to throw a screen pass to Matt Harris but underthrew the pass. Since he threw it behind the line of scrimmage, it was a fumble, and Martinsville’s Will Reynolds recovered.

Reynolds caught a 43-yard pass from DeChane Hairston on the next play, and Eggleston scored two plays later to make it 14-0.

“Toward the end of the game against Halifax, our energy level went down, and it carried over to this week,” Cobbs said. “We tried to pick it up in the second half (Friday), but it was too late.”

It got worse in the second quarter. Penalties forced Martinsville into a 3rd and 23 situation, but Eggleston took a pitch and rumbled left 27 yards for a touchdown to push the lead to 20-0.

Rustburg went three and out on its next possession and elected to punt. But Ronwyn Pritchett, a 6-foot-3, 280-pound de-fensive tackle who has committed to Richmond, broke through the line to block the kick. Derick Ziglar scooped it out of the air and returned it 17 yards for a touchdown.

Even when things went right for Rustburg, they went wrong. Cobbs intercepted a Hairston pass and returned it 30 yards, but three plays later, Harris fumbled. Martinsville (1-1) recovered, and on the next play, Scott broke free for a 69-yard touchdown, pushing the Bulldogs’ lead to 35-0 before Rustburg could get on the board. A converted wide receiver, Scott ran for 184 yards on 14 carries.

“We need to be mentally tough,” first-year Rustburg coach Jon Berlin said. “That’s something we’re going to continue to work on. We really need to put together two halves of a football game.”

The only bright spots for Rustburg were Cobbs and Campbell. Cobbs ran for 161 yards and two touchdowns. Campbell had 135 yards on 15 carries and scored on an 80-yard touchdown run.