Coming off of an impressive win over Chilhowie 48-27 the Fort Chiswell will travel to Galax to take on the state defending champions. The Maroon Tide (10-2) won last Friday beating J I Burton 44-14. The main weapons for the Tide are Dougie Peoples the tailback, Carson Orton the quarterback. Replacing Peoples is Blake Brown at the running back and thats not a drop off and their main receivers are Joseph Spurlin and Ethan Robinson.
This will be the second time these two teams have met this season. On October 8 on a Saturday afternoon at Fort Chiswell the Pioneers stopped the Maroon Tide 15 game winning streak by beating the defending state champs 31-20. In that contest Galax ran for over 350 yards with Peoples having 233 of those yards. Orton,Brown and Peoples all scored one touchdown.
Fort Chiswell (9-3) had over 235 rushing yards with senior Colby Rider scoring three touchdowns and rushed for over 160 yards. One of the huge plays of the game came from Pioneer safety Tanner Bailey who intercepted Orton and ran it back 63 yards for a pick six.
The Pioneers will go with Logan Smith, Alex Brooks, Grant Milgrim, Jacob Coake and Patrick Crawford on the offensive line. Warren Moore will start at quarterback. The “H” back will be Andrew Stoots. Colby Rider , Tanner Bailey and Hunter Parrott are at tight end and receivers. Sean Morgan and Tyler Jakubiak will split the time at running back. Devin Newman, Billy Shrewsberry and Jon Gregory will see time on the line. Anthony Morris , T J James and Logan Newman will get action as wide receivers.
On defense the Pioneers will go with Brooks, D.Newman and Crawford upfront. Rider, Milgrim. Shrewsberry at inside linebackers. The outside backers are Bailey and Stoots. The secondary will consist of Morris, James and L.Newman. Coake, Smith , Ethan Woods, Hayden Hawks and Parrott , morgan and Moore all seeing time on defense.
Fort Chiswell head coach Todd Tiller said,” Galax likes the power running game. Peoples and Brown are both very good, Orton does a real good job quarterbacking. Their offensive line does a great job and Coach Dixon is as good as any coach around. He does a tremendous job. I have the utmost respect for him and the job he does .” Coach Tiller then remarked ,” On defense the Maroon Tide will run 34 and 52 schemes. Their secondary is cover three most of the time. Sometimes they will go man-to- man depending on situations.I’m sure Galax will do some adjusting from the first contest. We need to neutralize the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. ”
So the Pioneers have gone from a winless season to a nine win season. They have went from not making the playoffs to the elite eight of the Group 1A state quarterfinals. This team and staff have done an excellent job of turning the football program around. There should be some awards and or recognition after the end of the football season. Win or lose Friday night this team has had a tremendous season. This past off season and during this football season the things they have played for are redemption and respect. They have done and won both . Kickoff is scheduled for Friday 7 pm at Galax High School .