EMORY, Va. — The Rye Cove football team got the start to the game it wanted, but the good times didn’t last.
In Saturday’s season-opener, played at Emory & Henry University against Lord Botetourt, the Eagles jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead. But Rye Cove surrendered 21 straight points from there and ultimately failed to keep pace with the explosive Cavaliers, falling 49-12 under mercy-rule running clock conditions.
It was an inauspicious start to the season for Rye Cove following last fall’s 14-1 mark, Cumberland Region championship and four-round state playoff run, but Eagles coach Gary Collier acknowledged after the teams’ inaugural meeting that Lord Botetourt may be the best opponent on this year’s schedule and tested his squad in a multitude of ways.
“A couple of long pass plays were broken coverages on our part, but still, it seemed like every time we got them to third-and-10 or more, they had a big play,” Collier said. “They had a ton of athletes. They have a lot of speed. They’re a good football team and they exposed what we need to work on with our pursuit angles and that kind of thing. We need to work on a bit of tackling.
“But they’re well-coached. It was a good game that started well. We’ve just got to go back to work. That’s probably the best team we’ll play all year long. We’ll see. But we know what we need to work on.”
Rye Cove senior Blake Goins returned the game’s opening kickoff 34 yards and later set up the Eagles (0-1) with first-and-goal with a 45-yard run. Will Rollins then found the end zone from a yard out to give Rye Cove the early advantage.
But that was the high point for the Eagles, who fumbled away the ball on a would-be first-down run on their second possession and gave up three straight touchdowns to trail 21-6 and allowed the Cavaliers to score 28 consecutive points to end the game, including a TD with 8:41 left to play that brought on the running clock.
“The start was good,” Collier said. “We did exactly what we wanted to do our first series. That was kind of what we wanted to do all game, but they made adjustments and we ran into a good AAA team. That’s basically what happened. We found a lot of answers for our questions.
“We could sit here and talk about how we’ve only had our starters in for nine live plays (in the preseason), but it is what it is. We knew what we had to do and you can’t make excuses. We made a ton of mistakes that we can fix and work on. We’ve got some people out of position. We’ll fix that. They exposed what we need to work on. At the end of the day, we’ve got a ton to do. At least they let us know what we need to work on.”
LINDSEY VINCENT
Lord Botetourt outgained Rye Cove 516-222, averaging north of 10.5 yards per play. The Cavaliers in particular showed a flash for explosive plays, tallying touchdowns of 70, 57, 48, 37 and 25 yards, along with seven other plays that gained double-digit yardage.
Junior running back Quinten Jones was a menace against the Eagles’ defense, racking up five touchdowns as he scored on runs of 2, 9, 57 and 37 yards and also hauled in a 48-yard scoring pass from quarterback Angel Rigney, his classmate. Jones amassed 154 rushing yards on just 13 carries, averaging 11.9 yards per attempt.
Jones also notched a big play defensively, snagging an interception to end the first half.
Rigney was nearly as good, carrying the ball 13 times for 140 yards and completing 7 of 13 passes for 186 yards and three touchdowns, also connecting with Eric Irons (3-79-1) on a 70-yard score and Garrett Lonker (2-33-1) on a 25-yard TD.
Maddex Umber (3-13), Lonker (3-12) and Aaron Lyle (4-11) rounded out Lord Botetourt’s rushing totals and Jerry Smith caught a 26-yard pass from Rigney.
Rye Cove appeared to find a little life down 21-6 when Cole Barnette took off for an 80-yard touchdown on a one-play scoring drive in the second period to trim the deficit back down to single digits, but that capped the scoring for the Eagles.
Barnette (4-96 rushing) led a Rye Cove ground game that also received positive contributions from Goins (4-63), Rollins (10-28) and Carter Roach-Hodge (3-9). Jacob Jessee completed 4 of 6 passes for 35 yards, hitting Luke Jessee (1-15), Will Darnell (1-13), Barnette (1-9) and Roach-Hodge (1-4).
Despite the lopsided loss, the Eagles remain optimistic for the balance of this campaign and will use an early bye week to prepare for a road game at Grundy on Sept. 5.
“I’m proud of the kids,” Collier said. “This is a great place to play and a good atmosphere. We played a good team. That’s a well-coached team. There’s a lot of talent on that team. We’ll go back to work. We’re off a week, which I don’t like, but we’ll work for Grundy.
“In two weeks, we’ll go to war.”