Grayson County's Makray Goad carries the ball through the George Wythe defense.
Tim Hayes
Jamey Hughes has a unique perspective when it comes to Saturday afternoon's VHSL Class 1 state football semifinal game between the Grayson County Blue Devils and Rye Cove Eagles.
As the head coach at Rural Retreat, his Indians are the only squad that has faced both teams in 2024.
Rural Retreat suffered a 55-12 loss to Rye Cove on Nov. 15 in the first round of the Region 1D playoffs, while the Indians dropped a 29-12 decision to Grayson County in the third game of the regular season on Sept. 13.
He'll be curious to see which team prevails and clinches a spot in the Dec. 14 state finals in Salem.
"I believe that they are pretty evenly matched with what they do offensively, and they both play very good defense," Hughes said. "It will be a really good football game with two talented teams that are well coached."
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Rye Cove (13-0) is averaging 49.1 points, 280.1 rushing yards and 104.8 passing yards per contest. Eight players have combined for the team's 62 touchdown runs.
Defensively, the Eagles give up 14.7 points per game and junior linebacker Will Rollins is the top tackler.
"Their size and physicality stand out," said J.I. Burton coach Jacob Caudill, whose team suffered a 54-14 loss to the Eagles on Nov. 1. "They're big and strong up front and in the backfield and at linebacker. Defensively, they get to the ball and read keys better than I've seen any team do in a while."
What is the toughest part of facing the Eagles?
"Matching their physicality up front and tackling their big backs," Caudill said. "They run hard and block the line of scrimmage really good. You can know where they are running it, but you still have to stop it."
Grundy suffered a 61-28 loss to Rye Cove in the Region 1D semifinals.
"The thing that stands out the most is how well disciplined they are," said Grundy coach Keegan Bartley. "They know their responsibilities each play, and very rarely make a mistake on an assignment. They don't move until they need to move, and use their incredible reaction time to make plays on both sides of the ball.
"The toughest part for us trying to stop them, was the size and physicality matchups. In the trenches, they were much better and used that to their advantage. You know what options they have pre-snap to get the ball to, but it doesn't matter when you are at a matchup disadvantage. They are just old-school, physical, and send more blockers than you have defenders on certain blocking schemes. Defensively, they are the most fundamentally sound one-on-one tackling team that I have seen."
Grayson County (9-3) is averaging 28.9 points, 203.4 rushing yards and 99.7 passing yards per contest, while yielding 12.3 points per game and blanking two of their three playoff opponents.
The offense is balanced as quarterback Maverik Goad has thrown for 1,194 yards and Aaron Peterson has rushed for 1,107 yards.
"They are well-coached and play physically on both sides of the ball," said George Wythe coach Brandon Harner, whose squad lost twice to Grayson County this season. "Defensively, they have improved tremendously since the beginning of the year and have those kids playing at a high level.
"[Grayson] Coach [Stephen] James does a great job using different formations and motions to try and put your defense in a bind but still running his base offense. Every year we have played them he always has a new wrinkle for us and we have to adjust to it quickly. The quarterback can hurt you in the run and pass game. [Peterson] is one of the best in the region and runs the ball extremely hard. Then you also have the receiver (Mac Goad) that is absolutely outstanding at catching any ball thrown at him."
Of course, in any big game it will also come down to who wins the big boy battle in the trenches.
Clayton Austin, Trevor Darnell, Ethan "Big E" Lawson, Cooper Bowen and Griffey Williams are offensive linemen who pave the way for the Cove.
Darnell, Bowen, Lawson, Hagan Rhoton, Brayllen Paille, and Clifton Bishop are dandy defensive linemen for the Eagles.
Omar Hernandez, Joe Shaver, Peyton Burnett, Kingston Cox and Austin Bryant hold it down on the O-Line for Grayson County, with Cox, Hernandez, Preston Jones, Joaquin Walton, Jacob Brannock, Sean Alley and Benton Wagner all contributing on the defensive line.
"Grayson is a physical, hard-nosed team and very sound defensively," Hughes said. "Rye Cove plays a physical style as well and play aggressive and fast on defense."
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