Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

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November 5, 2009

SWD title secure, Richlands awaits Grundy

By MIKE DAVIS

RICHLANDS, Va. — The Richlands Blue Tornado won their sixth Southwest District title a week ago when they outlasted the Carroll County Cavaliers in the second half after falling behind by a touchdown at halftime.

“It’s great to win six district titles,” Richlands head coach Greg Mance said. “It’s a tribute to our assistant coaches who work so hard in the off-season and to win six straight district championships you have to have players and we’ve been blessed.

“We’re blessed to have great players who have a great work ethic and it goes back to the community and their upbringing. There’s no secret to our success, it’s how hard these coaches and kids work from July through December.”

Richlands has one regular season game left tonight against Grundy before the regional playoffs begin next week. The Golden Wave comes into the game tonight at Ernie Hicks Stadium/Emats Field after beating Tazewell last week, putting an end to a five-year losing streak to SWD teams.

Grundy was led by Cody Justus with 162 all-purpose yards with two touchdowns. Justus had a score on a 13-yard pass from Jon Kelly and a 62-yard interception return for a TD. Kelly had a 1-yard touchdown plunge along with the scoring pass.

“We went to Grundy last year and they had nothing to play for, their season was done,” Mance said. “And they got after us for four quarters and even when we got ahead they still stayed after us.”

“I came out of Grundy that night with a lot of respect for Grundy football players and this year, they have a lot of those players back. They have a quarterback (Kelly) that is 6-3 and (Cody) Justus that was an all-region receiver last year and I think he caught over 70 passes last year.

“They’re big up front and they move well, they have experience and they’re dangerous. They beat a very good Tazewell football team and the biggest thing for us is that we’re going to have to stop the penalties. We don’t want to go into a two week stand with that hanging over us.”

The Blue Tornado had mountains of adversaries to overcome in Hillsville last Friday night, from penalties to cold swirling winds to having the football they’ve used all season for their kicking game thrown back to the sideline by an official without an explanation even though it was checked before the game.

The Tornado defense had trouble against Carroll County in the first half stopping the misdirection, but they pitched a shutout in the second half.

“We talk about it every week,” Mance said. “A mark of a good football team is how you’re going to handle adversity and can you come back from adversity. We go down to Carroll County, which is a tough place to play, and by halftime we’d fumbled twice in the red zone and kept shooting ourselves in the foot with penalties and blocks in the back.”

The Blues had to fight for 48 minutes against Carroll County and battle through 13 penalties for 140 yards amidst an unfriendly atmosphere. Devon and Cody Johnson had two touchdown runs of 70 and 10 yards called back due to yellow flags.

“We told the kids at halftime to settle down, everything is going to be OK, but we have to do a couple of things (in the second half) to get this thing turned,” Mance said. “We came out in the third quarter and played great and set the tone by playing Richlands-style football. I’m proud of our defense, they came out and shut Carroll County in the second half.”

Richlands has continued as strong tradition, having won six SWD crowns in a row, and they’ll begin the hunt for a sixth straight Region IV title in two weeks. The Blue Tornado has posted a 66-11 mark since 2004.

“We tell our kids you have to play 48 minutes,” Mance said. “We train four days a week and a lot of teams train three and we’re blessed. We have a lot of athletes and we try to play our kids one way and that helps.

“We try to speed the tempo up on teams that play kids both ways and the kids understand that, we have to play hard for 48 minutes.”

The Blues earned a bye week for next weekend’s expanded Region IV regional playoffs before returning to the gridiron the following week at home against an opponent to be determined.

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