Max Meadows…Playing in front of a jam-packed home grandstand, the Fort Chiswell Pioneers won their homecoming game over Auburn 35-7.
Pioneers senior quarterback/wide receiver, Tanner Bailey, scored three touchdowns, two rushing and one receiving, as he accounted for 163 total yards. He rushed the ball 16 times for 107 yards and caught two passes for 56. He scored on runs of 22 and 48 yards and caught a 21-yard touchdown pass from Brody Crockett.

Auburn’s only score of the game was by Tristan Perry on a big 38-yard run late in the second quarter that cut the Eagles deficit to six, 13-7, with 4:26 before intermission. Perry had 11 carries for 121 yards at the intermission for Auburn (2-4).
The Pioneers scored first as Aaron Crawford recovered an Auburn fumble and on their second play. Bailey raced 22 yards weaving his way into the end zone, and Tyler Dunford’s kick put them up 7-0 with just 51 seconds into the game. He then ran 48 yards with 6:50 to go in the second quarter, but Fort Chiswell (4-1) was left at 13-0 as the point after was blocked. They would strike right back after the Eagles got on the board as Bailey caught a 21-yard pass from Crockett in the right corner of the end zone with just 17 seconds left in the first half. They would then hand the ball off to Anthony Morris on a counter play for the two-point conversion for a 21-7 lead going into intermission.

They would up the lead to 28-7 with Sean Morgan running in from seven yards out with 1:56 left in the third quarter. They would get their last score of the game with 5:36 left in the final quarter as Crockett, quarterback sneaked in from three yards out and Dunford’s kick made it 35-7. They would then put their junior varsity in for the last three minutes of the game.
Fort Chiswell held the Auburn Eagles to just 35 yards for the entire second half. After his impressive first half, Perry carried the ball nine times the second half for a minus 15 yards. Auburn had 146 total yards of offense at intermission and finished with just 181 for the game.
“Our defense really stepped up in the second half tonight,” said a happy Pioneer head coach Todd Tiller. “We adjusted our inside and outside linebackers at intermission. Auburn hadn’t ran the play hardly any but it really hurt us in the first half. That play hadn’t hardly been used in their first five games. I’m proud of how we shut them down after the adjustments.” Coach then said, “This was as good as we have played on both sides of the ball tonight. We executed pretty good the second half. I thought Tanner Bailey, Sean Morgan, Brody Crockett and Tyler Jakubiak ran well. Our line blocked real well. With the off-week after our loss to Floyd, it seemed like it had been forever since we had played.”
The Pioneers have limited four of their five opponents to under 200 yards in a game. Floyd was the only one to have over 200 yards of offense. The Pioneers will hit the road next Friday as they go to Galax to take on the Maroon Tide on their new turf field. Kick-off for the game will be 7:00 pm.

Fort Chiswell – 7 14 7 7 – 35
Auburn – 0 7 0 0 – 7

Rushing – FC – Bailey 16-17, Morgan 14-71, Crockett 5-54, Jakubiak 10-44
Aub.- Perry 20-106, Chestnut 4-6, Kelley 16-49, Marshall 5-12

Receiving – FC- Bailey 2-56, Aub.- Perry 2-8

First Downs – FC – 18 , Aub.- 12

Penalties- FC – 5-47 yds., Aub.- 3-25 yds.

Turnovers – FC- 1 , Aub.- 1

Passing – FC- Crockett 2 of 5 – 1 TD- 56 yds., Aub.- Kelley – 2 for 2 – 0 TD – 8 yds.