Riverheads at Buffalo Gap: And now you’re in the know

By Jim Sacco

Published: October 30, 2008

Even as he sits at a computer in his Bridgewater dorm room, Jacob Hutchinson wants just one more shot. One more taste.

One last chance to sit in that Riverheads locker room, listen to coach Robert Casto remind the guys, in so many words that, “yeah, you know who you’re playing. That’s all I can say. It’s in your hands now.” And then pull his helmet over his head as he trots onto the field.

It doesn’t matter if it’s in front of a raucous red-and-black-clad crowd or if there are black-and-gold-garbed grandmas screaming in his ear. None of this matters.

“Whether or not this game is ever held at RHS again,” he types onto his computer, “there will always be fireworks.”

You see, bub, that’s how it works. Hutchinson, in college, thinking about tonight and remembering that despite having a state-title ring, his record against Buffalo Gap is knotted at one.

“I mean,” he writes. “1-1 deserves a tie breaker.”

It’s about his counterpart those two years, Travis Morris, longing for the same thing. Remembering the days when, “we would walk to and from class all excited about the game,” he e-mails from Concord University.

That’s what it does to ya, bub. Turns you from a laid-back teen into a football player wound up tighter than Victoria Beckham’s face.

That’s what happens when you hear about it all year; wearing your Riverheads football t-shirt at your summer job doesn’t help much either. Everybody knowing that you’re the mopped-top quarterback for the Bison keeps you, pretty much, front and center wherever you go. The poking. The prodding. The fans wanting to know if their boys could beat them boys this year.

“Every day ...” Hutchinson types, “they would ask me about Gap.”

Riverheads at Buffalo Gap. Buffalo Gap at Riverheads. Two schools, two rivalries, two teams tied together. Same middle school, same district, same division.

The Gladiators win a title in 2006 and Gap comes back and does it in 2007. Tit-for-tat. It’s the way a rivalry should be, with two opposing quarterbacks weaned in the Augusta Quarterback Club, but not truly born until they bake under the Friday night lights. Two guys that waited their turn to play in this game and the two before them and the two before them. So on. So forth. You get the picture.

It was about treating your No. 7 jersey like it was made of gold. It was about being “proud to represent my family,” Morris writes, “my hometown of Craigsville and everyone of the Buffalo Gap community!”

It was about knowing that you had to step up your game. It was about knowing you couldn’t “duck out of bounds against them,” Hutchinson types. “You have to get that extra yard on a scramble. You have to find your receivers. You have to remember the game plan.”

And you have to do this and stay calm. You know that, because it was Buffalo Gap and Riverheads, chances are it was for the district title and, most certainly, it was for bragging rights.

That’s why Jacob Hutchinson wants one more shot.

“It is the greatest situation I have ever been in,” he types. “The QB for both teams deserves so much credit just for stepping onto that field in a game like that.”

That’s why Travis Morris would nod his head in agreement.

You see, that’s what it’s all about, bub. And now you’re in the know.