Photos by Greg Barnett
Bluefield – Before Bluefield kicked off Friday it had been 35 days since the Beavers last suited up.
During that span Graham had played four games.
The difference was evident Friday night at Mitchell Stadium.
The G-Men rushed 39 times for 251 yards, led quarterback Zach Blevins who accounted for 132 yards and two scores on the ground, as they defeated the rival Beavers 31-6.
On both sides of the ball the G-Men had their way, limiting Bluefield’s normally explosive offense to just two plays over 20 yards.
“That’s our goal,” Graham head coach Tony Palmer said. “When you play a team like Bluefield you’ve got to limit the big plays. If you let them get big plays they’re going to run you out of the stadium so we tried to tell them to ‘do your job’ and the guys did their job. And we were able to do pretty well with it.”
Complementing the G-Men defense was an offense that moved the ball at will. Drives of 71 and 64 yards ended in touchdowns for the visitors on the scoreboard with a fumble and a punt capping their other two first-half drives.
The Beavers meanwhile struggled to move the ball or find positive plays.
With the exception of a 14-play, 76-yard drive that resulted in a turnover on downs, the Beavers had one net yard of offense in the first half.
“When you haven’t played a game in 35 days and didn’t get to practice for three weeks none and then come back to get ready for a really good football team it’s not going to be easy,” Bluefield head coach Fred Simon said. “I knew it wouldn’t and I don’t think this is any indication of our team. We’re going to have to work and get some things corrected but man, we’re behind the eight ball right now. We’ve got two games and it’s Oct. 8. We’ve played two games and I’ve never experienced this stuff and it’s pretty hard.”
The second half didn’t provide much hope either.
The G-Men came out of the intermission and immediately marched 60 yards, scoring on a 10-yard jaunt from Ty’Drez Clements.
“We felt like we had the advantage up front,” Palmer said. “We just wanted to establish dominance early on. We just knew we had a and edge up front and guys ran hard. It was just an all around total effort by the team.”
The Beavers finally jumpstarted their offense when quarterback Ryker Brown, surrounded by a host of G-Men, tossed a backward pass to running back Amir Hairston that was toted down to the Graham 5. The G-Men held twice on the goal line, forcing fourth down.
A rollout call and toss from Brown to Jae’on Flack accounted for the Beavers’ lone score of the evening.
Afterwards it was all Graham again.
The G-Men opened the fourth with a field goal and two plays later, intercepted Brown at the Beaver 9. On the first play of the following drive Frazier put the finishing touches on his masterpiece, calling his own number for the final points of the evening.
In all the senior quarterback finished with 132 yards on the ground and was 3-of-4 passing for 35 yards and a touchdown.
“That’s what we do,” Palmer said. “We attack. We try to flip and change formations but we try to get advantages on the edge when we run.”
Graham improves to 5-1 with the win while Bluefield drops to 0-2, seeking answers after quarantines and Covid mandates have threatened to derail its season.
“When you go 35 days without a game, it’s tough,” Simon said. “We have pretty good talent but nothing like what you’re going to face in a game. It’s hard to improve when you’re not playing games against somebody that can go 100 percent all the time. That’s what I knew going in. Timing was going to be a factor. You tell me what team, college or pro, can go 35 days without playing a game. Let Alabama go 35 days without playing a game and play Georgia. How are they going to play?
“That’s the difference. We lost three weeks of practice and I’m not making excuses, just telling you the facts. They haven’t lost any time and that’s the difference in this situation. We’ll just go back and play PikeView Monday and try to get going. It’s just hard on our players. You’re asking them to play a game they haven’t played in 35 days. On our schedule, we played the best two teams first. I don’t mind they beat us if we all have the same amount of practice time and the same amount of games and we just didn’t get it.”
Bluefield will host PikeView on Monday at 7:30.