If I may piggyback on this thread instead of starting another, here is a brief recap of tonight's win by the Riverheads girls.
The evening started off on the wrong foot for the visitors as they were delayed by some sort of traffic issue and the 6:00 game actually got started at something like 6:50. Whether or not that impacted them emotionally, the Gladiators took immediate control of the game as Kallie Poole, the Big Red's only senior player, knocked down a triple to open the scoring. I did not keep score but I believe she had at least three others before all was said and done.
The home team poured it on in every way imaginable using their superior quickness and teamwork, and the first quarter would have ended in a 21-0 shutout if not for a Brunswick lay-up scored right at the horn. The second quarter was more of the same except that Brunswick did have its highlight stretch of the game midway through the quarter. They were trailing 26-2 at that point when they knocked down a three, then stole the inbounds pass and took it in for a lay-up to score five quick points in less than 10 seconds.
Sadly those were about the only points they scored in the quarter as RHS took a 29-8 lead into the locker room. As you can tell from the score that was reported above, nothing much ever changed and eventually the running clock took effect to sort of counter-balance the late start.
While the Gladiators were taking care of business here, Luray was doing the same to Cumberland on its floor. Therefore the Lady Bulldogs will come to Riverheads Tuesday night for the regional semi-finals in a 2 vs 3 match-up. The winner of that one will advance to next Friday's regional final to be played at Louisa High School and will also earn a berth in the state tournament, whereas Tuesday's losing team will turn in their uniforms and focus their attention on softball, soccer, and track.
Tuesday's semi-final game is also set for 6:00 and hopefully it will start on time. But before Gladiator fans can get excited about that one, they will first turn their attention to a pair of crucial games taking place tomorrow (Saturday) across the state from each other.
First of all, at 12 noon the unbeaten JV girls from Riverheads will take on Stuarts Draft for the JV championship in a game being played at Alleghany. That will be an hour or so trip for each team but you can bet their fans won't mind if they come out of there carrying a trophy.
Then at 6:00 tomorrow night, the Riverheads varsity boys will travel to Cumberland as the number 8 seed to battle the top-seeded Dukes in the quarterfinal round of the Region 1-B boys tournament. Naturally they will go into that game as underdogs, but as we painfully learned a few years ago (even though it might not have been THAT painful for some fans) sometimes a 16 can even beat a 1, so that is why we play the games.
Good luck to both Gladiator teams on those very different missions. Safe travels to all but regardless of what happens, we know that the Lady Gladiators varsity team will still be in action next week when they will battle yet another set of Lady Bulldogs.
