Dan River falls to Appomattox in final seconds on homecoming

Published: October 10, 2008

RINGGOLD — The long stares on the faces of the Dan River coaching staff told the entire story late in the fourth quarter of their Dogwood District matchup with Appomattox County.

Junior linebacker R.J. Myers went to one knee and covered his face with his jersey, hiding the frustration and tears of what was a classic between the teams.

After rallying to take a lead late in the fourth quarter, the Wildcats gave up two Appomattox touchdowns in the final 1:38, the last coming on a 17-yard pass from Kenny Scott to Michael St. John with 15 seconds remaining, as the Raiders captured a 32-27 victory to spoil Dan River’s homecoming Friday night.

The teams combined for six touchdowns in the final quarter.

“We knew it was going to be a very close game. They’re a very good ball club. They gave us problems up front all night long on offense,” Appomattox coach Ben Martin said. “Coming out to be a 6-0 ball game at half, I thought it was going to be a close game, I never would have thought it would be a shootout.”

Both teams struggled to find the end zone in the first three quarters. A 70-yard punt return for a touchdown by Dantony Dickerson early in the third quarter gave Dan River its first points of the night and tied the game at 6-6.

The score remained the same as both teams tried to wear the other down through the running game, as the Wildcats and Raiders both pounded the ball.

Then the fourth quarter began, and Scott hooked up with Neal Thomas on the third play of the quarter from 44 yards out to give Appomattox a 12-6 lead and ignite the scoring fest.

Following Dickerson’s second touchdown of the night — a 9-yard plunge — and the two point conversion, Scott ran the ball to the left side and sped past the Dan River defense for an 81-yard score.

“They exploited areas that we need work in and they isolated receivers on the area that we need to work on,” Dan River coach Ferrell Edmunds said.

Dan River quarterback Trey Edmunds threw his first interceptions of his young career — three total on the night — but was able to find receiver Michael Marshall on a crossing route that Marshall ran 70 yards for a touchdown to briefly give Gretna (2-4, 1-2 Dogwood) the lead back at 21-20.

And following a Scott fumble, Dickerson ran the ball four straight times, the last run a 5-yard plunge into the end zone that gave Dan River a 27-20 lead with 4:31 left.

“This was like a real intense game, both teams were fighting hard,” Dickerson said. “We made the mental mistakes that we should not have made.”

Those mistakes included blown coverage in a cover-3 that allowed St. John to find an opening deep in the secondary down the middle of the field. Scott took advantage, connecting on a 50-yard pass that cut the Wildcats’ lead to one and gave Appomattox (5-1, 1-1 Dogwood) some life.

But after Andrew Tickle recovered the onside kick for Dan River, the Wildcats were able to run the clock down to 35 seconds, leaving Appomattox with the slimmest of chances to make a play to win.

But that they did, as Thomas received a punt at the 30-yard line and cut through some tacklers before finally being brought down at the Dan River 17. It took just one play for Scott to find St. John on a fade route to the corner of the end zone with 15 seconds left to seal the Wildcats’ fate.

“I knew it was going to be there and I just put it in the right spot and my receiver went up to get it,” Scott said.

Heads hung, the kids from Dan River were depleted and their emotions were shot after battling for the entire 48 minutes and have the game essentially ripped from them.

“The kids showed heart. We competed to the end, but they made one more play than we did,” the elder Edmunds said. “The kids got to learn how to win, they showed that they had heart, now they got to show that they know how to win. We had a couple of breakdowns that we got to address. The kids played extremely well.”