By Josh Mathews and Joe Short
The Skyhawks’ defense held Cosby at bay for the entire game and made three key stops that kept the Titans out of the end zone to win 7-2. In so doing, Bird kept its playoff hopes alive.
Most of the action of the game was in the first quarter, and L.C. Bird struck first. K.B. Miles’ 10-yard run gave the Skyhawks the lead.
Early in the second quarter, Cosby threatened from the Bird 28. Senior linebacker Dominic Gray got a big quarterback sack on second down, then K.J. Irvin broke through the offensive line to come up with a tackle for a loss that forced the Titans to punt.
Cosby finally got on the board on Bird’s ensuing drive, as a holding call on the Skyhawks awarded the Titans a safety, making it 7-2.
Titans kicker Kyle Lowe booted a 47-yard field goal on the next drive, but a flag for roughing the kicker gave Cosby an opportunity for a touchdown.
Cosby took that opportunity, but Tyler Henderson and K.B. Miles had something to say about that, batting down passes on first and second down. Then Kristopher Trinidad flushed the Cosby quarterback out of the pocket, forcing an incomplete pass. Lowe then missed a 23-yard field goal attempt.
Cosby (5-2) would get the ball back again once more in the second half, but an interception near the end zone by Elijah Rivers dashed their hopes of scoring.
In the second half, a bad snap stopped another Cosby drive as Skyhawks defensive lineman Tyreak Reid recovered it, and a second bad snap caused the Titans to turn the ball over on downs instead of attempting a field goal.
Chris Barfield and Gray led the defense with five tackles each.
Miles had 142 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The win was a big one for L.C. Bird (4-3). This week, they will travel to play Monacan.
Matoaca 41, Colonial Heights 0
All three phases of the Matoaca football team came to play Friday night.
It was the second time this season Matoaca shut out an opponent and put up 40 or more points.
The game started with a Colonial Heights fumble, recovered by senior linebacker Juleon Pointer at the Colonial Heights 21-yard line. That led to a touchdown run on the next play by running back Ricarlos Taylor.
Quarterback Marcus Dreher completed 13 of his 17 pass attempts for three touchdowns and one interception, including a 34-yard “Hail Mary” to wide out Troy Lewis with nine seconds remaining to go in the first half.
The Hail Mary was set up by a perfectly executed “squib kick” by Aidan Redmon. Colonial Heights fumbled, which was recovered by Pointer. (Redmon made five of six extra-point attempts.)
Dreher also ran the ball 12 times for 95 yards and two touchdowns, one of those from 40 yards out. In addition to his touchdown, Lewis intercepted a pass and returned it 33 yards for a second score.
“It was a total team effort,” Matoaca coach Jay Parker said.
Matoaca (5-2) will host Thomas Dale on Friday at 7 p.m.
Prince George 23, Thomas Dale 20
The Knights (4-3) fell to the Royals (5-2) for the first time since 2000.
“Prince George is a good team,” said Thomas Dale coach Kevin Tucker. “They played us tough and took advantage of our penalty-plagued game. We had three touchdowns called back and failed to score on all three of those drives.”
The Knights jumped out to an early 14-3 lead in the game, thanks to TD passes from Courtenay Burrell to Chris Tyree and Jasiah Williams.
A Prince George touchdown and a safety on Dale for holding in the end zone made it 14-12 at halftime.
In the second half, penalties played a big role as they cost the Knights at least two touchdowns. This enabled Prince George to take a 20-14 lead going into the fourth quarter.
A Curtis Allen touchdown run, his second, was set up by a fumble that gave the Royals a short field.
Prince George added a field goal in the fourth to make it 23-14. Williams added his second touchdown late in the game for Thomas Dale, but it wasn’t enough.
“Prince George was the more disciplined team Friday night, and if we don’t clean up our act, we will find ourselves out of the playoff race real quick,” Tucker said.
