Randy Fluharty finds an escape hole
Photos courtesy of Patty Haught
By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
At halftime Friday night the question was "what is Calhoun made of?"
The Red Devils had played a poor half of football ... lackadaisical.
Ritchie led the Red Devils 19-13 thanks only to a couple of spectacular kick returns and the Rebels' propensity to shoot themselves in the foot by a plethora of penalties.
How bad could it have been? Ritchie County had 133 yards offense at intermission with 13 first downs. The thing that kept the Rebels from making things more lopsided was 60 yards in penalties. That and Calhoun's kick return game that had a 62-yard punt return touchdown by Darrenger Fluharty and a 55-yard kickoff return by his older brother Randy. Randy also had a seven-yard touchdown run in the first half.
Things were not going good for the Red Devils and an upset was definitely in the making. Had the Red Devils played the second half like the first ... well, they wouldn't be 2-0 today.
Ritchie player is chased down in the backfield by Calhoun's
64 Christian Cottrell, 57 Tim Sutro, and 71 Jacob Haught in back
Randy Fluharty runs the ball
Instead the Red Devils survived the gut check and came out to pound Ritchie for a businesslike 37-25 victory over the Rebels.
After intermission the Red Devils did exactly what they needed to do. They eliminated the turnovers - they lost two of their four first half fumbles - and unleashed a jaw-jarring running game to pull away from the Rebels, putting them away midway through the fourth quarter.
They did that by riding their horse.
Randy Fluharty, who had 231 yards rushing on 34 carries, was the man the Red Devils rallied behind as his big offensive line pounded the Rebels and he followed their blocks for clock-eating yardage that kept the ball away from the pass-happy Rebels.
Calhoun actually took the lead for good when Zach Moore scored from a yard out and added the extra point for a 21-19 lead at the 9:01 mark.
Calhoun's defense stopped Ritchie on the next offensive series and the Red Devils added another score as Fluharty burst into the end zone from the 22. A Moore-to-Fluharty conversion made it 30-19 at the end of the third.
After that the Red Devils continued to manhandle the Rebels but failed to put them away because of a fumble deep in Ritchie territory and a pass interception in the end zone. Either of those two scores and the game would have been over and more lopsided than it was.
Calhoun finally slammed the nail in the Rebels' coffin with about two minutes remaining when Randy Fluharty scored from 11 yards out to make it 37-19.
Ritchie's Ryan Richards caught a 67-yard scoring pass from Andy Lipscomb to close out the scoring with about a minute remaining.
Red Devil cheerleaders move the team with spirit
Richards also caught a 20-yard touchdown pass in the first half. Lipscomb had a one-yard score while tailback Chris Echard had a seven-yard scoring run.
The Red Devils learned three things from this game:
1. They can't just throw their helmets out on the field and expect the other team to roll over and play dead.
2. They need to work on pass defense. Ritchie passed for 198 yards against the Devils as it completed 10 of 30 passes. The saving point for Calhoun was three interceptions, including two by Randy Fluharty and one by Roman Rader.
3. They can win games by playing businesslike football. Lackadaisical football just won't cut it.
Calhoun is now 2-0 on the season and finally opens its home schedule this coming Friday night against Doddridge, 1-1. Ritchie County, now 0-2, is home to Clay.
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