Red Pride rolls through Bulldogs

GREENVILLE – A combination of penalties and inclement weather helped Riverheads to a 21-7 win over Luray on Friday night.

The Gladiators and Bulldogs saw the end zone in only the second quarter.

The Gladiators hit the Bulldogs with a quick three-yard run, in the second quarter but a flag on the play gave the Gladiators five extra yards. A 15-yard run from Riverheads’ Montana Puffenbarger plus another flag from Luray put the Gladiators on the 15-yard line. Cory Sandridge took in a 15-yard touchdown run for Riverheads, but the extra point was no good.

Some big plays from the Bulldogs took them to the 20-yard line but Stansford Shifflett stopped Luray in its tracks with a sack on the quarterback Will Logan in the backfield.

Riverheads’ Joseph Cash took on a 55-yard run to the 34-yard line where Demetrius Younger then followed with a 22-yard run up to the 12-yard line. Cash brought the Gladiators to within two yards of the end zone and then followed up with a touchdown on the next play. With Gladiators’ quarterback Cameron Brown out with an injury, Lance Diehl filled in and ran in the two-point conversion. With the score at 14-0, Luray was given a chance to answer the call at the coliseum.

The Bulldogs passing game came into effect. On third-and-ten, Luray’s Logan hauled back and sent one into the arms of Garrett Cook, who took it into the end zone for a 49-yard touchdown pass, putting the score at 14-7 with the clock winding down.

“We gave up some passing but only on one big play,” Casto said.

The Gladiators weren’t going into the half without another touchdown. A few handoffs and a trade mark criss-cross play put Riverheads at the 30-yard line with six seconds to go. With Brown back in at the quarterback position, he let one fly down field. Riverheads’ Cash and a Luray defender went up, both catching the ball, but Cash landing in the end zone with the ball in his hands.

“Cash played great tonight,” Casto said. “He just went up and got it. That was a big play in the ball game.”

Neither team would see another touchdown.

“We get the ball on the one-yard line and don’t get it in,” said Riverheads coach Robert Casto. “You’ve got to give it to them [Luray], they stuffed us.”

Riverheads (6-2, 3-0) heads to Buffalo Gap (8-0, 3-0) on Friday. The Gladiators are the last team to get a win over the Bison — Gap’s last lost came in 2006. 

“We just do what we do, it’s no different for us,” Casto said about next week’s match-up.