Photography courtesy Tina Quesenberry

Max Meadows—— Playing on an overcast Saturday afternoon and with misting rain falling, the Fort Chiswell Pioneers broke the second longest winning streak in the Commonwealth of Virginia as they defeated the defending state champions Maroon Tide 31-20.

Senior Colby Rider, who scored three touchdowns and rushed for 162 yards on 27 carries, led the Pioneers. He also was credited with 15 tackles from his linebacker position.

Galax (5-1) got on the scoreboard first as Brian Brown rammed his way into the end zone, and Edward Medina’s point-after put them up 7-0 with 6:48 left in the opening quarter. On their third possession of the game, quarterback Carson Orton dropped back, rolled out to his right in front of the Pioneer sideline and threw a pass. Fort Chiswell safety Tanner Bailey stepped in front of the Tide receiver and raced down the Pioneer sideline for a 63 yard touchdown interception. Tyler Dunford tied the game with his kick with 3:05 remaining in the quarter.

After a couple change-of-possessions, the Pioneers would go ahead on a Rider one-yard plunge to go up 14-7 in the middle of the second quarter. They would hold the Maroon Tide and on their next drive Rider bowled his way into the end zone. Dunford’s kick put the Pioneers up 21-7 going into halftime.

Galax got the second-half kickoff, but the Fort Chiswell defense forced a three and out.

The Pioneers took over at their 36-yard line. On second down from their 41, Rider took the direct snap in the “wildcat” formation and went off the right end, shook a couple tacklers and rumbled down the sideline for a 59 yard score to go up 28-7 with 9:42 in the third quarter.

The Tide looked shocked as the Fort defense gave up yards grudgingly. Then with 4:46 to go in the third, Orton would burrow his way in from one yard out and Medina’s kick made it 28-14. The game stayed that way until after a Pioneer punt that put the Tide at their own 10-yard line. Powerful running back Dougie Peoples ran off tackle and down the Galax sideline on his way to a 90-yard touchdown and the Tide were right back in the game. After the Peoples’ run-through, place kicker Medina pushed his point after on the right of the right upright to keep the score 28-20 with 8:34 remaining.

Fort Chiswell would then grind their way down the field holding onto the ball for over six minutes and on fourth and four at the Maroon Tide five, Tyler Dunford hit his first field goal of the season as he hit a 22-yarder that went right down the middle of the goal posts, with just 2 minutes left, for a 31-20 score.

The Tide would then take the kickoff and drive 62 yards hitting on three passes. Then on third down at the Pioneer 20-yard line Orton dropped back and threw a pass over the middle, but Devin Newman would pick the pass off to end the game.

Fort Chiswell players and fans then went wild celebrating, as the upset was complete.

Pioneers head coach said, ”Wow! What a game from our kids today. I can’t say enough for our offensive line. Our defense only gave up one huge play there in second half. What a performance.”

He then said, ”I have so much respect for Galax head coach Dixon (Mark). He has a heck of a program and there’s a reason why they’re the defending state champions. This is a huge win for our kids. Colby Rider was man out there today. He had, I think, 15 tackles on defense and he took over the offense.” He then added, ”Defensively we wanted to try to keep them off balance. We sent our linebackers at different times and at different places. We didn’t wanted to let them double team us on the line of scrimmage.“ When told his team they just stopped the second longest win steak in the state, Coach Tiller remarked, “They made some mistakes today and more importantly we capitalized on most of them. Like I said earlier we wanted to confuse them on whom to back upfront, because they have great line play. We wanted to be aggressive and physical. This win really speaks to our kids working their tails off this off-season. All that work really paid off today. This is huge win. Our offense and defense all did a great job.”

The Pioneers (4-2) have now won two consecutive games for the first time since 2014. The offensive line has been able to play the same five and/or six kids the last three or four games. It sure helps to stay healthy and to have some continuity.

Fort Chiswell will now have to get ready for another Mountain Empire opponent as they host the Narrows Green Wave this Friday. Kickoff is slated for 7 pm.

 

 

Galax 7 0 7 6-20

Fort Chiswell 7 14 7 3-31

 

Rushing- Galax- Peoples- 29-233, Orton- 5-4, B.Brown- 16-69

– FC – Rider – 27- 162, Jakubiak 15-72, Stoots- 2-7, Moore- 2- – (minus 9), James 1-3

 

Passing C A INT TD YDS.

Galax- Orton 5 – 13 – 2 – 0 – 81

FC – Moore 5 – 13 – 0 – 0 – 60

 

 

First Downs- Galax- 14, FC- 14

 

Penalties- Galax- 9- 60 yds., FC- 3-25 yds.

 

Punts- AVG.

Galax – 3 – 22.6

FC – 4 – 32.0