Marty Gordon
Questions remain this morning about the future of the Auburn High School football program after Friday’s game with Galax was stopped after the first half. At the heart of the problem is the lack of players. Apparently, injuries in the first half led to the shutdown as the team did not have enough players to continue to play.
Auburn is 2-2 this season and has not completed an entire schedule in the past three years, all associated with the lack of numbers.
Radford High School remained flawless with a 49-22 victory over Alleghany in a battle of undefeated teams.
Landen Clark recorded a five-touchdown performance for the Bobcats (5-0), tallying two in the air on 13-of-24 passing with 274 yards, adding another two on the ground along with 145 yards on 12 carries and earning a 43-yard interception return touchdown.
Max Kanipe collected 126 receiving yards and two touchdowns on five receptions.
Tanner Evans rushed 18 times for 279 yards with four touchdowns as Christiansburg moves to 5-0 on the season with a 44-20 win over Pulaski County. Evans had scores of 31, 65, 32 and 79. Matt Annis added a 19-yard score for Christiansburg, rushing 13 times for 92 yards, and Isaiah Cotto had a touchdown, rushing seven times for 36 yards.
Players of the weeks: Continue the names of Evans and Clark as both seniors led their respective teams to 5-0 starts. Radford’s Landen Clark had five touchdowns, and Christiansburg’s Tanner Evans scored four touchdowns.
Evans is one of the best football players in the southwest Virginia, but he hopes to continue to play on the baseball diamond. Saturday, he announced a commitment to the University of Charleston to play his other sport as he hopes to play professional baseball one day.
This past spring, Evans was named to the Class 3 baseball first-team as an at-large player after posting a .435 batting average with 30 hits, three homeruns and 20 RBIs. He was also 5-3 on the mound with 69 K’s and a 2.25 earned run average.
Evans was also named the 2022 all-county, all-city player of the year in football.
Area Top 5: 1) Christiansburg, 2) Salem, 3) Radford, 4) Glenvar and 5) Narrows.
This week’s games:
Christiansburg at Riverheads
Riverheads is 3-1 after 37-0 win this past Friday over Wilson Memorial. The other two wins have come over Tazewell (35-7) and 28-13 over Ft. Defiance (28-13). Their lone loss came to Central-Woodstock 8-7 in the team’s season opener.
The Gladiators have outscored opponents 107 to 28 this season.
Riverheads has a very rich playoff history after going 12-1 in 2022, beating George Wythe in the state title game and winning 10 championships including seven straight.
Riverhead’s all-world running back Cayden Cook-Cash has missed two straight games with an injury after putting up some unbelievable numbers enroute to the 2022 contest.
He gained 1,879 yards rushing with 175 carries and 26 rushing touchdowns and rushed for 775 yards in four playoff games.
His is still listed as questionable for the Christiansburg game but expect him to play.
Prediction: Christiansburg 35, Riverheads 34.
Radford at Glenvar
Radford and Glenvar is the classic matchup for the area. Both are unbeaten and both are looking further down the road to the state playoffs. The winner of this contest should be the region’s top seed.
Glenvar has beaten Galax, Liberty, Cave Spring and Hidden Valley and has outscored opponents 158 to 37.
Glenvar quarterback Brody Dawyot was 20 of 25 for 267 yards with a pair of scores in their last outing against HV. The sophomore signal caller also had 10 carries for 100 yards and three more scores in a 49-13 win.
Just a season ago, Glenvar downed Radford 37-34 on a touchdown at the end of the game. This should be another classic.
Prediction: Radford 27, Glenvar 24.
