Blue Devils survive Pioneers

BY ANTHONY STEVENS
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

LEBANON, Va. – If you like offensive explosions, you probably wouldn’t have enjoyed Friday night at Tommy Bryant Stadium at Harry Stuart Field. But if you like physical, hard-nosed, thrilling football it was the place to be.

The Blue Devils held off a final Lebanon drive that ended at the Gate City 2-yard line when time expired on an incomplete pass. The Blue Devils took a huge 13-7 Clinch Mountain District win.

“It was just a great, great, great effort by all the kids,” said Gate City coach Bill Houseright. “We’ve had to battle these first four games. Any win we can get, especially at someone else’s place, is really special.”

Every football game is played in two halves. Lebanon controlled the first half, Gate City took over in the second. It was a spectacular night for Blue Devil junior running back Joseph Vaughn. He was almost unstoppable in the second half.

“We went into the field house and the seniors got us pumped up at halftime,” Vaughn said. “We just came together. We just talked about coming out and playing with heart. That’s what we did and it really worked out.”

Vaughn had only 37 yards rushing in the first half with 20 of those coming on a run shortly before halftime. But he finished the game with 133 yards on the ground and two touchdowns.

“Vaughn just gave great effort and broke a lot of tackles,” Houseright said. “He’s did that all year long. He’s just an exceptional runner. He runs hard and has breakaway speed as well.”

In the first half, the Blue Devils had five series and four ended in punts and they turned the ball over on downs at the Lebanon 35 in the other.

The Pioneers touchdown was set up by an outstanding punt return by Nick Bush. He had a 19-yard return and a 15-yard personal foul penalty was added onto the end of it. It took Lebanon 5-plays to drive 35-yards. Quarterback Andrew Jessee ran a “bootleg” play and raced into the corner of the end zone on a 7-yard scramble for a 7-0 lead.

After the touchdown it was three plays and punt for Gate City. Then came an outstanding drive for Lebanon but one that ended up costing them when they didn’t get to the end zone. The Pioneers ran 14 plays and took over six minutes off the clock, but turned the ball over on downs at the Gate City 14 to keep the score 7-0 at the half.

The tide turned toward the Devils early in the second half. Lebanon took the kickoff and on their third offensive play fumbled and it was recovered by Gate City’s Matthew Sloan at the Pioneer 43.

“I didn’t expect us to fumble around again,” said Lebanon coach John Adams. “I expected us to take the second-half kickoff and drive it down the field and score. We were well on our way to doing that. You just can’t fumble against someone and beat them. You’re not going to do it.”

It took the Blue Devils eight plays to score, all on the ground. Vaughn scored on a 1-yard plunge and Phillip Head kicked the extra point to tie the game.

Vaughn set up the go-ahead touchdown with a 42-yard punt return early in the fourth quarter to the Lebanon 15. Gate City went for it on fourth-and-3 at the 8-yard line and Vaughn scored over the right side to give the Blue Devils a 13-7 advantage.

“We made some sloppy errors and mistakes in the first half,” commented Houseright. “We didn’t do anything different in the second half. We just came out and started grinding it down the field.”

Gate City gave Lebanon a final chance. The Blue Devils were driving but Vaughn fumbled and it was recovered by Lebanon’s Garid Puckett at the Lebanon 9 with 1:48 left to play.

“It was tough,” Vaughn said. “I gave Lebanon a chance to win but we were able to hold them.”

The Pioneers aided by a couple of GC penalties moved down the field. Jessee passed to Bush who was tackled at the GC 2 with 20 seconds remaining. But Lebanon couldn’t punch it in before time expired.

Lebanon (2-2) will host Clintwood next week, while Gate City (3-1) travels to Appalachia.

Gate City 0 0 7 6—13
Lebanon 0 7 0 0—7

Scoring Summary

LEB—Jessee 7 run (T. Adams kick)
GC—Vaughn 1 run (Head kick)
GC—Vaughn 8 run (kick failed)

Team Stats
First Downs: GC 12, LEB 16; Rushes-Yards: GC 48-197, LEB 33-96; Passing Yards: GC 0, LEB 151; Comp-Att-Int: GC 0-4-0, LEB 11-20-0; Fumbles-Lost: GC 3-1, LEB 4-2; Penalties-Yards: GC 8-70, LEB 2-10; Punts-Average: GC 5-39, LEB 4-30.