Draft falls to B’way

By Cody Clifton Correspondent
Published: August 22, 2008

STUARTS DRAFT — The first game of the season came down to one possession. After going back-and-forth on the scoreboard, Stuarts Draft could not match Broadway in the fourth, falling to the visiting team 35-28 on Friday night.
The Gobblers received the opening kickoff and silenced the home crowd, scoring on an 80-yard, nine-play drive that lasted just over five minutes.
Broadway pounded their fullback Jarrett Lohr early and often, handing him the ball four times in the first drive collecting 37 yards.
Lohr ended the game with 146 yards on 19 carries with the majority of those yards coming after the initial contact.
“I don’t know [how I break all those tackles],” Lohr said. “I just keep running.”
The Cougars answered with a quick score of their own in the first, running the ball on every play to cover 60 yards in three minutes.
Travis Shifflett busted the defensive wall for his teammates with a 29 yard run to start the drive. Jeremy Fitzgerald finished off the drive, getting the handoff on a reverse and punching it in from five yards out.
Special teams got the ball back for the Cougars as the kickoff team forced a fumble by Broadway’s Mitch Wilson.
Stuarts Draft had a short field to work with, starting on the Gobbler 30.
The Cougars utilized D.J. Hines speed instead of Shifflett’s power on the drive, as Hines collected 12 yards.
On the five-yard line, Cougar quarterback Ryan Moore handed the ball to Hines, who bounced outside and ran away from the defensive secondary to give the home team the lead to end the first quarter.
The Cougar defense looked to be in good shape with a 14-7 lead and the Gobblers had a 3-and-12 in the second quarter, but Broadway quarterback Adam Caplinger found Joel Phillips wide open down field for a 58 yard pitch and catch to knot the game at 14 with 9:30 left in the half.
Caplinger added one more touchdown pass seconds before halftime, hitting tight end Josh Jameson on an out route, hauling the ball in with a one handed grab in the back of the endzone.
“[Jameson] has great hands to go along with athleticism,” Caplinger added. “You don’t really see that very often with big guys.”
Draft tied the game up again in the third when Moore kept the ball and scampered into the end zone from 10 yards out to once again give the fans hope.
With the score deadlocked at 28 in the fourth quarter, Broadway received the ball with 10:28 to go in the game.
Lohr hammered away, collecting 46 yards. A touchdown run up the gut from five yards out gave Broadway the lead for good.
“I think we can score more than 28 points a game,” Draft coach Rod Bowers said. “I don’t think our kids were as physical as we expect them to be, but all that’s correctable.”
Draft made one more run, but back-to-back penalties ruined the drive forcing the Cougars to punt, all but ending the game.
“We have to eliminate the fumbles and the penalties at key times in our drive,” Bowers added. “We just give God the praise for letting us play the game. The wins and losses are just for the fans and the media. There’s a whole lot more going on in our program than people know.”
The Cougars will work on correcting their errors and hit the road to Fishersville for a rivalry match against Wilson Memorial on Friday.