The Fort Chiswell Pioneers scored twice in the second half to beat the Grayson Co. Blue Devils 35-21. The victory spoiled the Grayson homecoming in a very physical game. The Pioneers 6-2 overall and 4-1 in Mountain Empire District got two touchdown runs from Denver Brown and from Brody Crockett. Brown also threw a 20 yard touchdown in the last five minutes of the game to put the game away.

Grayson Co. was led by wide receiver Tanner McPherson who caught two touchdown passes from Jake Hollandsworth. Hollandsworth threw three touchdowns and finished with 226 yards passing. Seth Phillips caught the other score for Grayson Co. The Blue Devils drop to 4-4 overall and 3-1 in the Mountain Empire District.

” We made a big adjustment at halftime,” said a happy Pioneer head coach Todd Tiller. We were getting beat by Hollandsworth to McPherson on the pass. So we moved Tanner Bailey on McPherson for the second half to be more physical on him. He ( McPherson) still caught three passes but he had to work for them.” Coach then remarked,” Denver Brown had a heck of a game for us at running back and our offensive played real well . I’m proud of our defensive as well.”

Fort Chiswell will be home for the first time in a month this Friday as they host Graham. Kick-off is slated for 7:00 pm.

 

Fort Chiswell 7 14 7 7 -35

Grayson Co. 0 21 0 0-21

 

Rushing – Fort Chiswell – Brown 13 -150 , Bailey 10-35, Jakubiak 6-54, Morgan 9-27, Crockett 4-5

– Grayson Co. Allen 9-31 , Johnson 19-60, Hollandsworth 7-20

Receiving – FC – Bailey 3-33, Brown 1-3, Morgan 3-36, Crawford 1 -minus 6

– GC – McPherson – 7-114, Phillips 8-104, Osborne 1-8

 

Max Meadows…For the third straight week Fort Chiswell will climb onto the yellow buses and this time will got to Independence , Virginia to take on the Grayson Co. Blue Devils.
Grayson Co. will enter the contest with a 4-3 overall record and 3-0 in the Mountain Empire District. They are coming off of a bye last week, so they have had two weeks to prepare for Fort Chiswell. Brett McPherson is their head coach and is in his 12th season as their head coach and he has an overall record of 62-64. Their wins are over Carroll Co., Bland Co., Rural Retreat and Auburn. The losses are to Alleghany (NC), Glenvar and Marion. Grayson Co. is averaging just under 30 points per game on offense and have allowed just under 17 per game.
Fort Chiswell 5-2 and 3-1 in the Mountain Empire District are averaging 28 a game and have given up just under 16 points per contest. The two teams have both beaten Rural Retreat and Auburn.
Players to watch for the Blue Devils on offense are junior quarterback Jake Hollandsworth, running back Levi Johnson, wide receivers Tanner McPherson and Seth Philllips. McPherson and Phillips are both seniors and are tall and lanky at 6-3. Johnson a junior and is 5-9 150 back that is very fast and quick. Their top linemen junior Crue Cassell , Grayson Osborne and Devontae Cox. On defense McPherson leads their secondary as is Johnson. Phillips is the main linebacker and Cassel leads the defensive line.
Fort Chiswell head coach Todd Tiller said,” Grayson like to use the split-back veer. They like to run the Johnson (Levi) kid and Hollansworth can and will run a lot from his quarterback position. They love to throw fade routes to the the two tall 6-3 kids- McPherson and Phillips.” He then added,” On defense they have ran two schemes the 50 and 40 looks. Their secondary plays two deep safeties and are in a zone coverage. They like to send linebackers and one of the safeties at different times and and from different angles.”
The Pioneers are coming offa 41-6 bashing of Tazewell as a couple of their players were out with ankle injuries. When asked about the health of his players Coach remarked, “ We are healthier than we were last Friday at Tazewell. Couple of the guys who sat out last week have practiced this week.”
Fort Chiswell will start Brody Crockett at quarterback with Sean Morgan and Tyler Jakubiak at running backs. Aaron Morris is the tight end with Tanner Bailey and Aaron Crawford at the wide outs. Logan Smith will get the start at center. The guards will be Billy Shrewsberry and Jon Gregory. The tackles are Ethan Hawks and “Loopie” Turpin. Denver Brown, Logan Newman and Zach Johnson will see some tome on offense as well. Defensively the Pioneers will go with Shrewsberry, Garett Chrisley and Gregory upfront. The linebackers will be Ethan Woods, Bailey, Crawford, Brown and John Poole. The secondary will see Newman and Morris at the corners and Morgan at safety. Smith, Crockett, Jaubiak and Johnson will also get in on defense Kick-off will be Friday at 7:00 pm at Grayson Co. High School.