Apparently, Richlands didn’t get the memo which said its Division 3 title game with Monticello was over.
On the fourth quarter’s first play, the Blue Tornadoes’ best player, Austin Fuller, leveled a Mustangs defender with a downfield block in a game which his team trailed 36-6.
Five minutes later, with the deficit still 22 points, Fuller did it again – on a play which didn’t even count because of a penalty.
If you want to know why Richlands has become southwest Virginia’s premier football program, all you have to do is look at those two plays and what they represented.
A player who doesn’t know the meaning of quit, a team which doesn’t know the meaning of quit and a program which doesn’t ever think it’s out of a game nearly pulled off a comeback for the ages Saturday.
Down 30 points two minutes into the fourth quarter, the Blues came this close to making it a one-score game with enough time left to do something about it.
That Monticello held on for a 36-22 win obviously ruined the script. You don’t get to the state finals three years in a row, as Richlands has done, and take pride in moral victories.
But at the very least, the fourth quarter provided plenty of insight as to why the Blues get here year after year after year.
"I remember Austin came out to me before the fourth quarter and said, ‘Let’s have some fun.’ After that, we just started flying around," linebacker Shane Wicks said.
With nothing else left to lose except pride, Richlands took advantage of an opponent which had obviously decided victory was in hand.
The Mustangs played soft coverages on defense, mostly stuck with running plays on offense – with a couple of curious play calls which made one wonder if Norv Turner had taken residence on their sideline – and the result was suspense.
A blowout arguably came within a lost fumble at the Monticello 30-yard line of becoming at worst a 36-28 game. Don’t think for a minute the Mustangs weren’t noticing this trend.
"They never quit," Monticello tailback Takeem Hedgeman said of the Blues. "Obviously, you’re a good team if you’ve made it to the state championship. It just shows how good a team they were."
"They put up a real good fight," Mustangs lineman Jake Miles said. "They made it real interesting – a lot more interesting than we wanted."
But in the end, interesting didn’t take the place of winning, which is what Richlands’ program is about. The realistic side of guys like Fuller, Wicks and coach Greg Mance knew the better team ultimately won.
Monticello kept Richlands’ defense off-balance for three quarters with a nice run-pass blend. The Mustangs’ defense made enough big plays and turned their opponent one-dimensional.
"They did a great job and we picked a bad day to play bad," Fuller said. "You can’t come out here and play at this level and expect to win. The better team won today."
That’s why Wicks, despite a monstrous 15-tackle, two-sack performance while playing with a knee injury, took no satisfaction in his individual performance.
"I’d take all the stats back for another state championship," he said.
State titles are what the Blues judge themselves by now. But even though they didn’t win another one yesterday, the fourth quarter in general and Fuller’s two crushing blocks in particular show why their standards are so high.
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