Playing in front of a standing room only crowd at Ragsdale Field on a nice afternoon the visiting Maroon Tide of Galax defeated the Narrows Green Wave 28-27. Galax got 218 rushing yards on 45 carries and four touchdowns from freshman Keaton Beeman and rushed for 364 yards for the win. Their defense limited Narrows to just 63 yards rushing as they advance to next weeks state semifinal Class 1A game.
It was a back and forth game at Narrows with one team- Galax -running the pigskin and Narrows throwing the ball. The difference was a missed point after by Narrows with 7:58 left in the game. Narrows had regained the lead on a Mikey McKinney one yard plunge to go up 27-21. The point after by the officials was wide left as most on the Narrows sideline thought the kick was good.
Galax would battled back and tied the game on their next possession as Beeman ran off tackle for a two yard touchdown. Their point after was good and ended up being the winning margin.
Narrows struck first as quarterback Wyatt Freeman hit wide receiver Gavin Pruitt on a 81 yard toss and run with 4:31 to go in the first quarter. Galax would score twice in the second quarter as Beeman ran in from one and six yards and tok a 14-7 lead into intermission.
Narrows (11-2) would tie the game at the 8:32 mark of the third quarter as Matthew Mullins caught an 18 yard pass over the middle from Freeman. Galax would strike right back this time Beeman would run in from five yards out go back up 21-14 with five minutes left in the quarter.
Narrows would tie the contest again this time on a Freeman to McKinney 45 yard strike down the left side line for a 21 all score going into the fourth quarter.
Galax ( 10-3) head coach Mark Dixon said,” Beeman ( Keaton) is a young buck. We went with him more because we wanted Blake Brown to be more rested on defense than by going both ways. I liked how we ran the ball today and our line finds a way. We not the biggest upfront.” He then added,” This team is pretty even keel bunch. We got down with less than seven minutes to go but you wouldn’t know by our guys. I also happy how our run defense performed today. Narrows is a real good football team and well coached.”
Narrows head coach Kelly Lowe remarked ,” It was a tough way to lose a ballgame. I hate for the kids and our staff and fans. What a crowd we had here. We lost to a good football team that is well coached . They made one more play than we did.”
Galax will now advance to the state semifinal game as they host the Chilhowie Warriors next Saturday. Game time will probably be 2:00 pm .
Galax 0 14 7 7-28
Narrows 7 0 14 6-27
Rushing – Galax – Beeman 45-218 yds., Brown 16-105, Evans 6-17, Vaught 2-7, Dickson 2-17
– Narrows- McKinney 8-31, Freeman 5-9, Kantsios 4-20, Morgan 2-3, Ch. Blaker 2-0, Ferguson 1-0
Passing – Galax – Evans – 3 of 3- 0 INT .- 0 TDS . – 15 YDS.
– Narrows – Freeman – 9 of 15 – 1 INT . – 3 TDS. – 178 YDS., Lowe 0 of 1 – 1 INT – 0 TDS – 0 YDS.
First Downs – Galax 22, Narrows 11
Penalties – Galax – 8/ 75 yds., Narrows – 3/ 25 yds.
Turnovers – Galax – 1 -( INT) , Narrows – 2 -(INT)