Central’s Mekhi Dabney heads upfield for some of his 91 yards rushing with Middlesex’s Colby Conti in pursuit.
Occasionally, statistics do not tell the entire story surrounding an athletic contest.
Take, for instance, the King and Queen Central-Middlesex football game played on Halloween night at Boxley-Bristow Field in Saluda.
King and Queen ran 63 plays to 23 for Middlesex, accumulated 19 first downs to 7 for the Chargers, dominated time of possession (35:57 to 12:03), and outgained the hosts 269-219.
But when time expired on the Tidewater District encounter, the scoreboard read: Middlesex 31, King and Queen 14.
Penalties (9 for 70 yards, center-quarterback exchange issues, and a pair of turnovers doomed Central to defeat in a contest during which they led 14-6.
Middlesex produced three scoring plays of 34 yards or better as the Chargers improved to 5-3 on the season.
“They kept hitting their playmakers,” King and Queen coach Calvin Darity said. “We kinda hit a wall, and little things started to add up. We told the kids during practice this week that we couldn’t let little things pile up because (Middlesex) was going to take advantage of it. It just grew like a rolling snowball. We tried to stop it, but it became too much at the end.”
Central’s Ethan Pate struggles for yardage as Middlesex’s Peyton Calhoun makes the tackle.
Middlesex’s recording setting running back JaQuan Griffin fashioned another strong outing.
He finished the night with 113 yards and a pair of touchdowns on the ground and also caught a 42- yard TD pass from Shane Glenn on a crossing route in the second quarter.
Griffin is now the school-record holder in single-season rushing yardage (1,545 yards and counting) and touchdowns (29 and counting).
“We made some adjustments and buckled down,” Middlesex coach Mark Bowen remarked. “We wanted to get Quan those records. That was important to us as a team because he’s a senior. We’re starting to play four quarters. Our conditioning was great, but we made it a point to play all four quarters for everybody.”
Central opened the contest by recovering a Middlesex fumble on the opening kickoff.
Mekhi Dabney then capped a 44- yard scoring drive on a three-yard run and Jadyn Nelson added the two-pointer to make it an 8-0 contest.
Middlesex fired back just over a minute later on a 64-yard scoring dash by Griffin that cut the differential to 8-6.
Central then embarked on an 11- play, 80-yard scoring march that was capped by Nelson’s 6-yard dash around left end to make it a 14-6 contest with 57 seconds left in the opening stanza.
A 22-yard pass from Glenn to Jamar Hammond and an encroachment infraction against Central set up Nathan Powell’s 34-yard TD run on the final play of the first stanza.
Middlesex then scored twice in the second quarter (Griffin’s 42- yard TD reception and an 8-yard pass from Glenn to Davonte Griffin) to hike their lead to 26-14 at intermission.
Central (4-5) then received the second half kickoff and ate off the entire third quarter clock only to have the possession end on downs at the Middlesex 13.
Middlesex posted the final points on Griffin’s 2-yard run with 2:38 to play.
Nelson led all rushers with 136 yards on 18 carries, while Dabney added 91 ground yards on 18 attempts.
Central closes out regular season play on Thursday, November 7, at King William. Middlesex entertains Mathews in its regular season finale Friday night.
Leave a Reply