By Greg Taylor, Contributing Writer
PTPigskinpicks@yahoo.com

The start of the 2009 season could not have gone any better for the Powhatan Indians.  In what could be dubbed as the “Battle of Route 60”, Powhatan took on Midlothian for the first time since 1985 even though these schools are only nine miles apart.  Behind a powerful offensive line and a stout defense, the Indians controlled the game racing out to a 30-0 lead by halftime. This also ended up being the final score.

An aspect of the game that goes unnoticed in any box score is the play of the offensive line.  There are no real stats kept for these mammoth men but their play is evident by how well or poorly the offense produces. A stat that shows how well the line did is that there were only two offensive plays resulting in negative yards: a bad snap on a punt and Shawn Minor losing his footing going down untouched in the backfield for a loss.  Every other offensive play was for positive yards or an incomplete pass which is a testament to the line’s performance.

The line’s dominance was evident from the onset as the game’s opening drive belonged to Powhatan.  Sophomore Landen Bradley, now the main tailback, showed why he deserves that spot, carrying the ball all six plays of the drive for 66 yards running through big holes for large gains.  His final carry of 14 yards put PHS in front 6-0 with only 2:37 off the clock.

Bradley (15 carries for 128 yards) would later add another touchdown on a 2-yard run in the second quarter after a bad snap on a Midlothian punt gave Powhatan a short field on the Trojans 12 yard line.

All facets of the game were working well for Powhatan.  Ellis Moore had a 35-yard field goal in the first quarter for a 9-0 lead.  His kickoffs were near to or in the end zone all night giving Midlo a long field to work with.

Defensively, the Indians consistently applied pressure into the Trojans’ backfield resulting in one sack, several plays of negative yards gained and two interceptions; one by Phillip Schoeffel and another by Darius Nash, which he ran back 29 yards for a touchdown and a 16-0 lead.

Joey Blanco led all Indians with 14 tackles in his first varsity start at defensive end.  Blanco battled most of the night against Virginia Tech commitment Matt Arkema and seemed to get the best of him on most plays.  Nash also had nine tackles to go along with the interception and Jay Jackson had eight from the other end position.

Overall, the defense held the Group AAA Trojans to only 106 total yards of offense (86 rushing and 21 passing).

The Indians only had one turnover on a fumble by Dustin Kingery but he atoned for that by scoring the final points for Powhatan on 12-yard run with 1:07 left in the first half. Powhatan (1-0) now travels to Charlottesville to take on Monticello (1-1) who saw their 21 game home winning streak snapped last week by Huguenot.  Kickoff is at 7:30 p.m.