Weatherman

Did Union quit in this game, or is Graham really 40-50 points better?

Sometimes you have to be careful what you say in interviews with the TV reporters......

Not getting many tweets out of Ridgeview tonight.

Doubtful, but this is why playoff games should be played on Saturdays.

I'm not sure Gate City surprised anyone. You don't ever take GC lightly, it just took a coaching change to get them back on the right course. Not picking at you, I just disagree.

Fired before the playoffs begin. Isn't this Chris Thurman the same coach that won a couple of state titles at Gretna and coached at Virginia HS for a while? Anybody got more info on this?

Union is the big favorite to win a State title in cross country today

Props to Coach Mance for calling it like it is. Too many coaches these days like to make excuses as to why their team lost, but he didn't and gave Central credit for making the plays necessary. Richlands is blessed to have him as their head coach.

What difference does it make if one district is stronger this year than the other? I'll answer that........none.

PH won big

Although I expected GC to battle, I didn't think this game would be this close.

This was an interesting matchup between two teams with contrasting styles. Richlands came into this game with all the confidence in the world, and it showed early as they wasted no time going 65 yards down the field in a hurry after the opening kickoff. If I recall correctly their defense stuffed Central on their first possession for a 3 and out, and a Central punt for about 15 net yards made it look like a rout was about to ensue. But from there, it was mostly Central's game the rest of the way. They should have scored a couple more times in the first half but between a big defensive stop or two by Richlands and Central shooting themselves in the foot, the Warriors only came away with 7 first half points. Make no mistake, Richlands' QB is an impressive playmaker. His arm alone accounted for most of Richlands' offense as they had difficulty getting anything going on the ground. As the game went on, Central began to put more pressure on the Richlands QB and flushed him out of the pocket, or got a sack. Central also delivered some big hits on Richlands' wide receivers when they caught the ball in front of them. #4 took a couple of pancake hits, but to his credit he bounced back. Richlands was up 10-7 in the 3rd when he took a big hit and the ball was jarred loose and Central returned the fumble about 30 yards into the red zone. That was the turning point of the game. The Richlands' defensive scheme bottled up Central's running game on many occasions but the Warriors kept pecking away and broke a few big ones here and there. With the score 14-10 Central in the 4th and Richlands driving Central's Ethan Mullins picked off a pass and rumbled and bumbled about 95 yards for the back breaking TD. Richlands' ability to strike quickly with the pass kept them in it to the end of the game. Central's inability to get a kickoff to stay in bounds helped shorten the field all night long for Richland's offense but Central's quickness on defense kept pressure on Richlands' offense the whole game. All in all, it was an exciting high school football game to watch.

Agreed. Union missed a great opportunity for a state title in 2017.

This shouldn't be allowed. Time to revise the football play-off system Virginia.

Union takes this one. Bullit Park is GC's kryptonite.

Ridgeview, Central, and Union will definitely be playing on Friday night. Not sure about Graham.

Poor Marion is all I can say.

Looks like several of the teams quit playing before last night's games, as there were lots of lop-sided scores.

Didn't Ridgeview score 35 points in the first 2 minutes against Jenkins during Ridgeview's inaugural season? And that Ridgeview team wasn't very good. It was 59-0 at halftime as I remember.

You will need to play your starters to beat John Battle

I see what you're saying. Sometimes it is hard to predict how teams will be in the future, as last year Virginia High was pretty solid, and so was Grundy from what I remember. Central needed to schedule some teams they could play with to be able to gain some confidence, now they need teams that can challenge them. But during the course of a long football season, a breather or two is sometimes needed.

Obviously Central is not getting any rider points to speak of with 4 of their victories over the 9-12 seeds who have only 2 wins between them. Is this the first year of a two-year schedule cycle or the 2nd year? Central needs to beef up their schedule now that their program is on solid footing.

beatdown

Union will always be Union, where football is king. They will almost always have a chance to win in any game they play. Central is an up and coming program, but one big win doesn't make you a contender overnight. It does look like they have turned the corner though. Central's competitiveness only adds to the excitement of district play for the future.

The most surprising thing about this game was that it was never close.