CHILHOWIE, Va. – Quarterback John Pratt has been making plays for the Holston High School football team all season. Perhaps none were as important as the one he made Friday night.
Pratt scored on a 66-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second half to highlight Holston’s 23-14 Hogoheegee District victory over Chilhowie.
“I thought about it at halftime,” Pratt said. “I said we’ve got to come out and do something big and it happened.”
Holston (8-1, 3-1) used a methodical rushing attack to bounce back from last week’s 34-13 loss to George Wythe. The Cavaliers gained 308 yards on the ground behind the trio of
Pratt (18 carries, 126 yards, two touchdowns), Jeffrey Bramlett (15 carries, 111 yards) and Cody Blevins (11 carries, 71 yards, one TD).
“Oh yeah, we were fired up after last week’s loss,” Pratt said. “We knew we had to get a good win.”
The Holston offensive line, which was led by the likes of Junior Carter and Daniel Fritz, dominated the line of scrimmage. Holston’s running backs also fought for extra yards and put
together several nice gains due to a strong second effort.
“We have big plays every now and then, but we just like to pound it in there and get three or four yards a carry,” Carter said. “Three or four yards a carry over three plays, that’s a first down. We just like to pound it in there.”
That strategy helped Holston gets its first two scores. Starting with excellent field position both times, Pratt and Cody Blevins scored touchdown runs to help Holston build an early 12-0 lead.
Chilhowie (6-3, 2-2) fought back to cut Holston’s lead to 12-7 at halftime. However, that’s when Pratt delivered his game-changing run.
He made several nice cuts to elude Chilhowie’s defenders and then used his breakaway speed to race to the end zone. The ensuing 2-point conversion increased Chilhowie’s lead to
20-7.
“That play felt great,” Carter said. “I was trying to run down the field and catch up with him, but he’s a pretty fast guy.”
It was the kind of play Holston head coach Jason Matlock had hoped to see his team deliver in the second half.
“That was big,” Matlock said. “We had heard all week we kind of folded the tents in the second half last week. We just wanted to come out and make a statement that we were
going to play as hard as we could for four quarters and wherever that got us on the scoreboard that was good enough for us.”
The final result was Holston’s first victory over the Warriors in nearly 20 years. Aaron Conley led Chilhowie with 155 yards on 19 carries and two scores, while Daniel Ashby, Brett Joines and Levi Gillespie all finished with double-digit tackles in the loss.
Yet, the night belonged to Holston.
“It has been awhile since we beat Chilhowie,” Carter said. “We have the upmost respect for Chilhowie and it feels good to beat them. They are our big district rivals.”
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