Max Meadows…Radford Bobcats, behind star running back Heth Grant who rushed for 317 yards and five touchdowns, defeated the Fort Chiswell Pioneers 52 -26. Grant had touchdown runs of 63, 62, 29, and a couple of 2-yard runs. He also caught two passes for 25 yards. QB DJ Baylor, subbing for injured started Marcus Finley, completed six of nine passes for 54 yards and one touchdown pass.
The Pioneers were lead by QB Warren Moore who finished the game completing 24 passes on 37 attempts. He threw three touchdown passes for 213 yards. Tanner Bailey caught six of those passes for two touchdowns and 59 yards. Jared Stevens also scored on a touchdown pass. He totaled three passes for 57 yards. Lucas Edmonds had six receptions, as did Zack Grimm. Edmonds totaled 56 yards, and Grimm had 42 yards.
Radford was up at halftime 15 – 12. Their two scores came from Heth Grants two yard run and a Nathan Dobos 29 yard reception from DJ Baylor.
The Pioneers two scores came from Bailey catching a 20 -yard pass and Stevens and 18 yard pass, both from Moore. Fort Chiswell had more first downs and more total yards at the break than Radford. They had outplayed Radford.
Their second half saw Bailey catch a 12 yard pass with 9:30 showing in the 3rd quarter, and Edmonds catching a two-point conversion to put the Pioneers up 20 – 15. It would be their last lead of the game.
Radford’s Grant would then take over, as he would score two touchdowns and rush for 132 yards in the third quarter alone. Mitch White would recover a Pioneer fumble and return it 11 yards for a touchdown to put Radford up 38 – 20 with all that happening within just three minutes on the clock.
The Pioneers (0-3) scored their last touchdown of the game with just 58 seconds left in the third quarter as senior Davin Odum run in from eight yards out.
The fourth quarter saw Radford score twice, both of them by Grant. The first one he took snap from center, went off left tackle, broke three tackles, changed directions, and raced down the Radford sideline for a 62-yard jaunt to pay dirt. After a Bobcat interception by Dale Stanley, Grant would take the snap this time and run in from 29 yards out and Logan Jessie’s PAT finished the scoring for a 52 – 26 win. Radford head coach Matthew Saunders said, “Give credit to Fort Chiswell’s head coach, Todd Tiller, and his staff. They outplayed us first half, and they had a good game plan. We didn’t practice well this week, and that’s my fault. We have to get better. Our line has to block much better. In the second half, I thought we did.” Coach then added, “Heth (Grant) is a workhorse for us. He sure was tonight! We decided to ride him the second half. “
Pioneer head coach, Todd Tiller, said, “Radford is a great team and is well coached. We had trouble running the ball tonight against them. And Grant for them, we just couldn’t stop him the second half.” Coach then said, “I told our guys at halftime, ‘We will get a huge dose of Grant’, and we did. He’s a special back, and we couldn’t stop him. I thought Moore (Warren) at QB played excellent. I thought he threw and ran well for us tonight. I’m glad we have an open week coming up. Hopefully we’ll get half our ten hurt players back.”