Gizmo777

This looked like a fantastic game to see. I am glad that Brookville recovered from the big win we had there last year and had a Great season. It looks like they grew from the game last year and have a team to be very proud of. It came down to the end like the game we had against Rockbridge county a few years ago for a title and they had the big interception as well to ice the game. I was pulling fo them as we have played them several times the last few years and they had not got thier title until this year. Way to go Bees!!

Way to go Clintwood!! It is very nice to see a title in SWVA this year and you guys make us all proud here in this end of the State.

I hope Kirvin's injury is not too bad. But it sounded like a bad one. I will be pulling for Brookville all the way. This is one Richlands fan pulling for the title to stay on this end of the State. I think they are well balanced and can throw the ball very good. This is usually a good test for defenses at this level and they should be able to compete pretty good. GO BEES!!

I think this one should be a great game. Brookville's quaterback has another year under his belt and I am sure he is on top of his game by now. (a junior I belive now) I figure that Brookvilles passing game will give Cave Spring a true test. Not sure how big thier wide outs are but if they are big then cave will struggle to stop them as it appeared that they might have been more susceptible to Richlands if McGlothlin had been able to play entire game. Sam Wright was fantastic against Richlands and he does not look like a player who has off games. This I belive is a toss up game and I always give the home team the advantage then. Cave Spring 35 Brookville 34.

Yea Lance I agree. You do a lot of work keeping this site going and I do appreciate it. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Congratulations Cave Spring and bring the title back to region 4. Of course good luck next week against Brookville next week first, then bring the title back to region 4. Wright is a fantastic running back and should be heavily recruited in college. He can definetly play next level. I think Takem Hedgeman (Monticello) was as good as Wright was but he was a beast as well. We were just beat by a better team tonight and thats OK. Congratulations Blues Seniors on a fine career for the Tornado. I have enjoyed watching you and hope the best for you guys in the future. You have played some good football and entertained me for several years on Friday nights.

NOT THE ORIGINAL BARRY SANDERS If Barry Sanders had played behind the Dallas O-line when Emmit Smith did he would have averaged over 2000 yards per season. Emmit ran through holes you could drive a truck through. Barry Sanders was the best to ever play the game period. Barry played behind lines that would have been outclassed by the dominant college teams of those days like Nebraska , Southern Cal. and Florida State. I am a huge Greeen Bay fan since 1967 when I met Carroll Dale and never liked any of the teams in the old Black and Blue division but I can't deny Barry Sanders of his due. He had more class than anybody playing today as well. He never celabrated his accomplishments and never tryed to show -up (GRANDSTANDING CRAP OF TODAYS PLAYERS ,95% AT LEAST) the competion except for his play on the field. Truely the best to ever play. Barrys son is good but not as good as dad was. Its hard to imagine that father and son could be numbers one and 2 in terms of best ever. That said I hope he does go to an old Black and Blue team like the packers.

Hats off to the officials at the Richlands --Tunstall game. I think they did an excellent job. They even got together and discussed a couple of calls to get them correct. They actually got out of the way and allowed the teams to play ball. Only calls made were obvious and had to be called. Does anyone know where they were from.

I agree 100% Lance. I think we will beat them with the game here in Richlands especially. But I do think it will be close. Its hard to blow out a team that runs the ball well and does not turn it over much. I think our kicking game may be a big advantage based on what I have read on the VA preps site over the year. It also appears that we are much more balanced on offense than they are. The one thing that could kill us if we don't value the ball is turnovers. This is an intangible that you can't predict but we do sometimes give the ball away like the other night against Tunstall ( 2). I would love to see us keep that stat a big fat 0 against Cave Spring.

These are very impressive numbers even if the competition was bad but I know several of these teams are very good football teams. I hope we can slow him down and keep them from running at will. It will be a huge test for our defensive line and linbackers to keep him in check. It may just be a game of outscoring each other and who has the ball last. Should be a Great game to see. I love to see close games as we don't get many in Richlands due to the people we have access to play down here in SWVA. I wish we could pick up Salem or Christiansburg or even Blacksburg somehow. They are much closer than Patrick county and they have excellent programs year in and year out. This would help us also to be ready for the level of competition we have in the playoffs. I personally think if we had better competition throughout the years we may have a another title or 2 in our books. Its hard to simulate good competition in practice.

Well said!!! If our players have as big of egos as some of our fans then we could lose easily. We need to work harder in practice than we have all year and remember that this is a very good team. Remember how we blew out Brookville last year to only come up short the next week against Poquoson. It happens to teams that don't take every game serious. The time for chest thumping is after ALL of the games are pl;ayed and we have another title.

A lot of great points made on here and almost all of them have merit. One thing nobody has mentioned is the infiltration of Prescription drug abuse into our area. All areas of the state have this problem but not to the extent of our region. We have more people hooked on Oxy and such as any area of the state. These people only produce kids which will probably follow in mom and dads example, sad but true. They will never contribute to society and only take from it. They definitely don't produce many good students, football players, and/or athelets of any kind for that matter. If we ever get an answer to this trend for Southwest Virginia being a drug infested area things will change here for the better. Football will pick up and so will the integrity and economy of the area as well. I would not dought that many of the thugs which taunt players and refs are druggies as well. They live amoung us and some are very hard to recognise.

I think that the 5 hour guess in much closer than the 2 and a half hour drive guess , especially for a bus. I just pray that everyone gets to Richlands and back in a safe manner. The big drive Tunstall faces is an advantage for us here in Richlands. Just the way it is. Good Luck to both teams and God Bless.

I agree 100%. BEST OF LUCK UNION. Heres a Richlands fan pulling for you to make a deep run. Leave it on the field and play with class as usual for you're heritage. Be safe on the big ride as well.

Just keep up the good work Lance. I agree about personal attacks on players and you have done a good job on this as long as I have been coming on here. I realize you put in a lot of work so we can get on here and voice opinions and gather info from one another. Its just good fun as long as people keep it in context and don't get personal about players. Most guys on here are pretty mature and just like to ride each other occasionally. We have a few who act thier age (2) but thats OK as well. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK LANCE

I am not on here much this year but just found out the situation in Tazwell. I have to agree with whoever said hats off to the coach at Tazwell and the players who stuck it out there. I know wins are what the players look for at thier age but Integrity is more important the older you get. To show up for practice and play when the team has had a mass exodose of quitters befall their team shows true character for those who are remaining there. You have my utmost respect and just play the game with you're heads high. I know in the long run you will be the winners for it. The score will not matter as you look back on it, only that you stayed true to the team and program. Tazwell will have its day again and this coach may just be the guy to help them get there. Undisciplined players can never take over the team. NEVER

As I said earlier, the way our team plays and gets penalized so much throughout the season had a lot to do with us loosing last year in the finals. Just my opinion. I think we should really focus on being a much less penalized team from now on. The coaches need to really get this across to out team during the year and we will be much more effective when we get to the playoofs. No dobt that Devon is special and he will go as far in football as his work ethic will take him. He can play on sundays if he puts the work into it and into the classroom. I hope he is a hard worker for his sake.

I agree that Richlands has gottton better this year as the games and scores show. I have only seen a couple of games this year as I battle a personal health issue. I just hope that Mance has helped this team grow in character and not be so penallized like the last few years. The stupid penalties we had the last few years have cost us at least one championship maybe two. I am not saying some of the calls in the final game were not questionable but the penalties we had over the entire year show a pattern which reflected on our team as we entered the playoffs. I just hope that our pattern entering the playoffs this year is not that of an undisciplined team. The refs tend to call the games sometimes based on you're reputation. Discipline is the easiest thing to teach a team but we seem to miss that most years and thats with as good a coach and staff as we have (probably the best in this end of the State). Just my opinion.

There's nothing Richlands can do about it's schedule and even if we have to travel then that's just the way it is. It may not be ideal but thats life. If we are the better team then we should win on the feild wherever the game is played. The Roanoke area teams have the advantage of more teams to play and select for scheduling purposes but I would still rather live in Southwest Virginia. It all evens out in the scheme of things. Go Blues!!

I was just trying to make a point to Gym about our scheduling problems. I hope that they never consolidate any teams in Southwest Virginia. I always routed for the Bulldogs and G-men when we were not playing them and will continue to do so. I am true Southwest Virginia football fan. Anytime a team from this area plays anybody from the Eastern parts of Virginia and I mean east of Marion I pull for our local teams. And I agree that Richlands is up right now but we all know it runs in cycles and we will be down eventually. I have nothing but respect for the accomplishments of the G-men and Bulldogs over the years. I am pulling for them to get it together soon so we have those great games like Richlands did last week against Union. There is just something about a close high school football game. They are the best of all levels of football in my opinion.

Great article to share. I remember the electricity in the air anytime we played Gate City in the days of the great Rogers brothers. It was like playing the Jones brothers from Powell Valley. They all were some of the best to ever play football in Southwest Virginia or should I say Virginia.

I agree totally. We have a lot of growing to do and I think we must get better to beat Pulaski county. Devon does not need to play if not 100%. We should be able to handle the G-men. Just taking a chance on loosing him for the year. Our defense is young and will get better the more games they get in. I hope we are ready for Pulaski county as this is a big oportunity for us to show the rest of the State what we have this year. Its also a chance for us to see what we have for the guys out that way as well.

Have you got any suggestions of a team we could play and they would actually play us. As said numerous times before, nobody in the Roanoke valley area wants to travel to Richlands everyother year, so who could we play that we don't. We already have about 3 road trips a year of 2 hours or MORE for the kids on a bus and that is a lot of travel for a high school team. Some of the local teams consolidating may help with schedule strength as Union looks like they may be pretty tough this year. I wish the G-men and Tazwell would consolidate then maybe they would be competitive.

Its way to early to talk about how Union will do in the playoffs and how they stack up to teams from other parts of the State. In the end the team will show where they belong in the rankings. I don't pay much attention to rankings as they are usually done by people who have only seen a couple of the teams play. Union played Richlands well and are well balanced on offense and a balanced offence is usually trouble for most of Richlands oponents over the years. Union will win a lot of games and if they get better this year they will definitly make their presence felt in the playoffs. Best of luck to Union, real football fans down that way. They just cheer for thier team and always pay respect to the other team when good football is played.

Don't be too hard on Falconboy. I am sure that evntually Abingdon will beat Richlands again. Every Dog has his day. It may just take him a while to find a bone.