There was no doubt the homecoming crowd packing the stands was pleased to see Goochland vanquish yet another foe in demonstrative fashion on Friday night when the Bulldogs (7-0, 4-0 James River District) rolled over visiting Cumberland 49-6. 

  Winning only the toss on the evening, the Dukes (2-5, 1-3) started deep in their own territory but looked like they might make something happen when they recovered their own blocked punt on the Bulldog 41.  But three plays later, they punted again to set up the Dogs for their first drive from the Bulldogs’ 16 and the game quickly got lopsided.

  Goochland moved the chains three times on a Patrick Clore run, a Jake Martin carry and a Cody Johnson pass to Nathan Adams.
  On third down slippery field conditions from an earlier rain caused Mitchell Brice slip for no gain. Looking at fourth and four on the Dukes’ 29-yard line, Goochland coach Joe Fowler elected to attempt moving the chains rather than send one of his two world-class kickers to the field. 

  “We just feel like we were in a position where we could get the first down,” Fowler said. “If we didn’t get the first down, we felt like defense was playing well enough to stop them.  Like everything, it is a calculated risk and we felt like it was a good calculated risk.”
  The fruit of his decision was demonstrated when Clore bulldozed through the line, hauling Duke defenders for an eight-yard carry. 

  Brice carried for seven and Clore, who had 12 carries for 122 yards on the night, moved the chains again setting up his first of three TD carries on a nine yard run.

  Colby Cooke followed with his first of seven consecutive extra point kicks on the evening. 

  With a touchdown in their pocket the Dogs never looked back running the score to 49-0. 

  Clore added his second TD on a one-yard run, Brice scored on a 26-yard run, Mason Engel, Brice and Martin each scored on passes from Johnson and Clore closed out the night with a 10-yard TD run. 

  The Dukes’ only score came when Goochland changed their defensive lineup late in the fourth quarter. Cumberland junior back Justus Dowdy ran in four yards for the Dukes’ only six points of the night. 

  The Bulldogs limited the Dukes’ top rusher Justus Dowdy to 72 yards on 16 carries, nearly half of which came on a single run (32 yards).

  Cumberland’s defensive strategy was to concentrate on the run.  “We focused on the run tonight, and I felt pretty good about the run defense,” said Dukes head coach Mike Sutton. :Brice was a tough one to bring down, and (Martin) and (Mason Engel) are tough running backs.  Of course their fullback (Clore) is a stud too; and we focused all week on stopping that run.  They got us on the pass tonight.  One thing had to give up; and tonight we had to give it up on the pass.”

  On the night, Johnson was 10 of 15 for 115 yards and three TDs for the Bulldogs.

  Never completely satisfied with his team’s performance Fowler felt there was still room for improvement from his Bulldogs. “We gotta keep plugging away and hopefully we’ll get better each week and make our way towards the playoffs,” he said.

  Running up big scores so often, a team could be tempted to by boredom and make mistakes.  “We just try to work on things that we didn’t have success with and on things we hadn’t worked on,” Fowler said. “Just try to continue getting better each successive play.”

  Such a high scoring offense almost overshadows the success of the Bulldog defense that launched a tenacious front making critical stops to help set up successful offensive drives.  Contributing to the Bulldogs’ success were Scott Pearce and Jess McLaughlin with seven tackles apiece. 

  Brice, with 72 rushing, and 22 yards receiving, scored a 26 yard TD run and made a 15-yard TD reception. “The (offensive) line was blocking great,” he said. “(The defense) was doing pretty good. They had a lot of stops.”

  Fowler attributed the performance of his defense to all the work on the front end invested by each player.  “It’s nothing that they’re doing now,” he said. “It’s the stuff they’ve done in the summer and the time leading up to here.  Coach Sumlin and our defensive coaches do a great job and the kids worked hard in the off-season.  You’re not going to get any better once you get to this point.  The kids have improved in the weight room and conditioning-wise, and it’s helping them out.”

  Even with such a successful run as the Bulldogs have had, Fowler knows his team has a tough stretch of opponents to close out the regular season.  “We just want to keep getting better each week,” he said.  “Buckingham, Amelia and Randolph-Henry are all very good football teams.  We’ll definitely have our hands full; so, we’ll just keep our eyes on the prize and just focus on the next game.  That’s all you can do.”

  This Friday night Goochland hosts Randolph-Henry at 7 pm.

Cumberland…........... 0   0   0 6 —  6
Goochland…............. 7 28 14 0 — 49
G — Clore 9 run (Cooke kick)
G — Clore 1 run (Cooke kick)
G — Brice 26 run (Cooke kick)
G — Engel 6 pass from Johnson (Cooke kick)
G — Brice 14 pass from Johnson (Cooke kick)
G — Martin 33 pass from Johnson (Cooke kick)
G — Clore 10 run (Cooke kick)
C — Dowdy 4 run (run failed)