Hawks win one for the Gunner, Saunders' son

GRETNA — With his son lying motionless on a stretcher late in the first quarter, Gretna coach Kevin Saunders gathered his players together. With tears chocking up words, he told the kids he was going with his son to the hospital and he wanted his team to pull out the win.

The Hawks answered with three quarters of emotional football, completely manhandling and dominating Altavista 22-0 Friday night in the Dogwood District opener for both teams.

Gunnar Saunders was airlifted to Lynchburg General Hospital after a violent collision with Altavista’s Jarrod Hunt on a punt return with 1:46 left in the first quarter. As soon as Hunt hit Saunders, the sophomore wide receiver fell numbly to the ground and was not moving. His father confirmed that he suffered a concussion and sustained an AC sprain in his right shoulder, but was doing better since he arrived at the hospital.

Hunt said the hit was not intentional and that once the contact was made between the two players, he knew Saunders was hurt.

“We just came together, because when a family member gets hurt here, the game changes,” Gretna quarterback Nick Miller said. “It ain’t about the game no more. We got to go out there and play for Gunnar. That’s what we did — we went out and stepped up for him. We didn’t like what happened, so we had to make a statement about it.”

After the game was stopped for 20 minutes, Gretna’s special teams unit stopped Altavista’s deepest drive into Hawks territory. Antony Reynolds blocked Blake Todd’s 32-yard field goal attempt to keep the score at 7-0 and swung the momentum back towards the Gretna sideline.

Reynolds came up big on the next Altavista (4-1, 0-1) drive, forcing a fumble near midfield that was recovered by Darion Jefferson. Gretna (4-1, 1-0) scored four plays later on a Miller 6-yard run to make it 15-0.

“Give credit to Gretna, we didn’t execute offensively,” Altavista coach Mike Scharnus said. “They whipped us, I guess. We didn’t do the things obviously to score. Their defense whipped us there. Offensively, we did things like that that we haven’t done all year. We put the ball on the ground, we were sloppy with it.”

Altavista’s offense, which had averaged 40.75 points in the first four games, was stagnant at best. The Colonels were able to move the ball on the ground early, but the Gretna defense began shutting it down and Altavista quarterback Johnny Wimbish could never take advantage through the air. The senior, at one point, threw nine consecutive incomplete passes, which included an interception by Kevin Dale.

Wimbish finished 5 of 16 passing for 56 yards and two interceptions. He also ran for 39 yards on 17 attempts. Chris Clark, who had rushed for eight touchdowns in the team’s four games, was held out of the end zone and limited to a team-high 48 rushing yards on 13 carried.

“They was blitzing every play and we couldn’t pick up some blocks,” Wimbish said. “The nine incomplete passes, that was kind of my fault. I should have been on target, but we’ve got to pick up from that. It was a playoff atmosphere, so we’re going see what it’s like later down the road.”

For the second consecutive week, penalties almost did in Gretna. The Hawks committed 13 penalties for 88 yards and had several drives that started in good field position end in punts.

Andre Dickerson scored the first and last touchdowns of the night. Dickerson opened the scoring with an authoritative 16-yard run up the middle, running over several Altavista defenders into the end zone. The speedy tailback was stopped in the backfield in the third quarter for a loss, but raced down the left side 43 yards for a touchdown that gave the Hawks a 22-0 cushion.

“The line — give the props to the line — it’s not all me,” Dickerson said. “They did a good job up front and gave me a look to where I can see the field, make my cuts and get into the end zone.”

Dickerson finished with 154 yards of offense (89 rushing, 65 receiving). Miller completed 13 of 20 passes for 171 yards and his only blemish was a third-quarter interception by Altavista’s Hunter Shelhorse.

Gretna’s Everett Witcher caught three passes for 60 yards.

“I’m just really proud of my kids,” Kevin Saunders said by phone while at the hospital. “I just don’t think people know how good these kids are as people,” noting that most every member of the team had called to check in on Gunnar’s condition.