By Greg Taylor
Contributing Writer

Pat Purington had been waiting for this game for quite sometime.  The former York Falcon and the current center for the Powhatan Indians had relished the opportunity to go head to head against his former team.  Behind his and the rest of the offensive line’s blocking, the Indians ran 55 times for 396 yards and passed for another 97 yards en route to a 49-0 shellacking of the Falcons in the Region I semifinals.

“I was pretty excited,” said Purington after the game. “The run game is our bread and butter. We don’t care if you know our plays, we’re going to run right at you.”

Running right at York is just what Powhatan did as the Indians had 240 yards of rushing alone by halftime and scored on their first four possessions of the game taking a 28-0 lead into the break.

Landen Bradley had a huge game as the sophomore running back had 178 yards on 22 carries to go along with a touchdown in the second quarter.  Bradley stepped up his game in a big way getting a huge chunk of his yards after the initial contact with a defender. Throughout the night, Bradley frequently dragged a defender or two for an extra three yards.  His signature run of the night was a 33 yard run in the first quarter off a counter play.  Bradley broke three tackles, spun, stumbled and broke a fourth tackle before being dragged down from behind at the York 26 yard line.  That run put Bradley over 2,000 yards in his short career.

Bradley said after the game, “I was pumped up and ready to go.  I was hoping that my offensive line blocked for me and I could find all the holes because I knew we would win.  I just feel we have the best offensive line so anything is possible when they are doing at the top of their ability.”

The offense had little problem moving the ball against the Falcons.  Powhatan’s opening drive was a 10 play, 59 yard drive that took 4:13 off the clock which saw a heavy dose of Bradley and Shawn Minor (14 carries for 96 yards) running the ball before Minor punched it in from one yard out.

With a 7-0 lead, the defense took the field.  They put on an impressive display for the entire game. But starting out, their suffocating play made York go three and out on their first four possessions while not allowing a Falcon first down until 2 minutes before halftime.

Powhatan’s second possession was another long drive, 86 yards to be exact, but one that only took 6 plays and 2:09 seconds before Dustin Kingery scored on a 12 yard run after a nice sidestep to avoid a diving Falcon defender on his way to the end zone.

Following Bradley’s one yard touchdown, Powhatan expanded their lead to 28-0 when Minor hit Kurt Taylor on a crossing pattern for an 18 yard touchdown.  Minor (8-11, 97 yards) did a great job of finding an open Taylor after his primary target, Josh Ingram, was double covered.

With York only having 65 yards of offense at the break, the defense decided to step up their game in the second half forcing fumbles on York’s first two possessions which Joey Blanco and Phillip Schoeffel recovered.  Both turnovers led to Powhatan scores.

Blanco’s recovery allowed Kingery’s second touchdown on a 13 yard run which saw him break three tackles before hitting the end zone.

Schoeffel’s fumble recovery gave Taylor his second touchdown reception with only 5 minutes gone in the second half catching a bullet from Minor from nine yards out for the only play of the drive.

In the fourth quarter, Ray Brown’s 24 yard run set up a Christian Higuchi two yard run for the game’s final touchdown. John Malcolm added the final point on the PAT.

Coming into this game, the Indians knew York was susceptible to a power running game. But they thought York’s offense would test them. Instead, the Indians pitched a shutout against a team scoring 34 points per game.  The Indians constant pressure forced four turnovers and held York to 158 yards of offense. 

“I didn’t think we get a shutout but the defense played hard all night and we stopped them early which really shut them down.  It was a good all around effort on the defense” said Schoeffel.

Higuchi led all defenders with 8.5 tackles followed by Collin Christovich with six and Schoeffel who also had six to go along with the fumble recovery and an interception in his first game back.

With the win, the Indians advance to their seventh Region I championship in the past eight years and will have a rematch of last year’s final against the Chancellor Chargers at home on Saturday. 

Kickoff is at 1:30 p.m.