Last night, the Cavalier football team took on the George Wythe Bulldogs on Homecoming Friday and dominated the game en route to a 38-24 win. While the score is closer than expected, the Cavs severely overmatched Bulldogs in terms of gameplay itself. 

After the Homecoming Friday festivities, which included the Powderpuff game, Spirit Week pep rally and pregame tailgate, it was finally time to see the school football team attempt to shift their momentum after a one win start to the season. 

The Cavs did not get off to a great start, however. After scoring a touchdown on their first drive, with a failed two point conversion attempt, sophomore quarterback Malacai Swain threw an interception which led to a George Wythe touchdown, giving them an eight to six lead. 

Swain, however, did throw a touchdown to sophomore Elden Holmes in the third quarter. That touchdown came thanks to a fumble recovery that led to redzone possesion by senior captain Jackson Drewry.

As the clock wound down to halftime, fans and players alike became anxious as the Cavs failed to capitalize on their offensive possessions. The Homecoming court was recognized during halftime, including the top three finishers for Homecoming royalty: Bryce Hicks, Gaby Baracat, and Jaden Kline.

Coming out of halftime, the Cavs were apparently very hungry for points, as they went on a massive 23 to zero run in the third quarter. Two of the three touchdowns scored in the quarter came courtesy of the aforementioned Drewry, who recovered George Wythe fumbles on back to back possessions to give the Cavalier offense two immediate redzone opportunities; both resulting in scores. The third touchdown of the quarter came thanks to a seven yard rush on a jet sweep by senior receiver Chris Henry.

Adding to his outstanding play in the backfield, Drewry also contributed a fourth tackle which forced a safety at the beginning of the fourth quarter. That safety, which made the score 31 to eight in the Cavaliers’ favor, was enough for Drewry to win the defensive Cavalier Chronicle Player of the Game award. 

Drewry was able to get in the backfield, making it look easy, on multiple occasions. However, he does not believe that he was the main contributor to those plays.

“The coaches and I decided to change what we were doing on defense and started putting pressure on the [offensive] line,” Drewry said. “[The fumbles] were the result of that. I didn’t do it alone; it wasn’t just me.”

As for the safety forced in the fourth quarter, Drewry feels that the Cavalier’s stifling defense came as a result of tiring out the Wythe offense. 

“Early on, [Wythe] was playing really well,” Drewry said. “We started to wear them down. Me and my fellow linebacker Xavier [Turner] were cooking up a bunch of new defensive plays that I feel boosted the [defensive] line. It just turned out that that was one of the plays that worked.” 

Offensively, the Cavalier Chronicle Player of the Game award recipient was senior running back Shawn Douglas. Douglas is honored with the award for the fourth time this season. In 24 rushes, Douglas ran for 163 yards, averaging almost seven yards per carry, while adding one rushing touchdown. Additionally, he returned the safety punt for a touchdown in the fourth. 

While he wants to carry his momentum into next week, Douglas is very concerned about the number of mistakes by the Cavalier team that may affect them going forward.

“We definitely [have] to work on some things because we made a lot of mistakes this week, but if we keep working hard week in and week out, we should be able to carry this momentum very far,” Douglas said. 

The fourth quarter saw George Wythe score a couple of garbage-time touchdowns, which cut the deficit to 14 rather than 30. Interestingly, the Cavaliers opted to sub in freshman quarterback Luke Kincaid in place of Swain during the blowout. Kincaid finished the fourth quarter and threw one interception.

With such a dominating victory in the books, the Cavaliers will look ahead to next Friday, where they will try and keep the momentum going forward. The Green and Gold will face the Powhatan Indians (5-1) at Powhatan High School on Oct. 14.