Graham vs Martinsville - article Mart. Bulletin

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Road Dogs

By ERIC CARDWELL

Bulletin Sports Writer

 

The Martinsville football team is riding a lot of momentum into Saturday's regional semifinal game at Graham.

 

The Bulldogs started off slow, but have put together a five-game winning streak to close the regular season. Now Martinsville travels to Bluefield to face its biggest challenge of the season, the Southwest District champion.

 

Bulldogs coach Taylor Edwards believes his team has done a good job of bouncing back from a 1-4 record and hopes it is ready to face the G-Men.

 

"We kind of struggled early, trying to find ourselves, trying to find what kind of offense we needed to be in and who we needed to have where," Edwards said. "Plus we played a lot of good teams early. That kind of put us behind the eight-ball. But the kids hung in there and we've won five games in a row, so we've got some confidence. We know we're the underdogs going up there. We realize it's going to be a tough fight, but we're looking forward to going up there."

 

The biggest strength Martinsville has had on the gridiron this season has been their defense. On Saturday, that defense will be called on to try and stop one of the best backs in Virginia, Ahmad Bradshaw.

 

Bradshaw has racked up 2,000 yards for the second season in a row and poses all kinds of problems for the Dogs.

 

"He's a great player," Edwards said. "We've got to contain him if we are going to have any kind of chance to win the ball game.

 

"The thing that scares us right now is can we tackle the Bradshaw? Against Carroll County he carried the ball 20 time for 312 yards but 240 of those yards came on four carries, they did a pretty good job on the other 16. You've just got to keep him from making big plays. One of the coaches said the other day Ãâ€ÂHe's like a ticking time bomb, he can go off at any time.' We've got to get people to the ball and make tackles."

 

While stopping Bradshaw has to be the priority, Martinsville can not ignore sophomore RB Robert Henry, who can move the ball on his own.

 

Offensively the Bulldogs are going to once again rely on Daniel Ray and Steven Henderson to carry the ball. Quarterback Quan Beamer will lead the passing attack to give Martinsville some diversity. Beamer will be looking for his usual targets in Jervis Wimbush and Kenny Gross.

 

"We've just got to score some points," Edwards said. "We can't go up there and expect to win 14-0 or 21-7. Our offense has got to score some points. That's what we're going to try to do. We're going to do a few things a little different, bring some surprises, but basically we're going to be doing the same things we've done the last five ball games."

 

One thing Edwards is not overly concerned about is the road trip.

 

"I don't think it's going to have a great effect on us," Edwards said. "We'd like to be at home, obviously, but I think our kids travel well. Sometimes I think we play better on the road, anyway."

 

Kickoff is set for 2 p.m. Saturday afternoon.