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By Gaylen Duskey
realfang@citlink.net
There's an old song played on an old television series Hee Haw that goes, in part, "if it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all ..."
Friday night Calhoun found out just how accurate that song can be as the Red Devils had nothing but bad luck in a 10-7 loss to previously win-less Wirt County.
The Red Devils had two touchdowns called back and at the time the second score was taken down off the board the Red Devils had been penalized 10 times to one for the Tigers.
Calhoun's luck seemed to run cold - much like the night air at Wirt County High School --- from the get go.
Case in point Calhoun's fist non-touchdown.
The Red Devils ran off the first 24 plays of the game with a steady march downfield that seemed to culminate in a 16-yard touchdown run around the left side by quarterback Casey Ritchie.
The only problem was that about 30 yards away from the play a Calhoun lineman was being whistled for holding. The touchdown run was nullified and the drive stalled out without the Red Devils getting on the board.
Wirt finally got off the schneid in the second quarter with a long drive of its own that, while being stopped by Calhoun at the five, culminated in a 21 yard field goal by Trent Hardbarger with 6:21 remaining in the first half.
That was the score at halftime.
Wirt took the opening kickoff of the second half and was able to put together a drive, thanks to three penalties against the Red Devils that kept it going, that ended in a Cameron Nelson at the 9:22 mark.
Calhoun seemed to get back in the game when it appeared to score on a flanker option pass from Ethyn Miller to Lucas Wilson. But while Wilson was celebrating in the end zone a yellow flag - this one for man in motion (Calhoun's 10 penalty at the time) - nullified the score.
The Red Devils finally got on the board after Seth Moore's fumble recovery set them up deep inside Wirt territory.
Casey Ritchie then scored his second touchdown of the night - the first that counted - on a five yard run. Dustin Holcomb's extra point with 9:23 remaining left the Red Devils trailing by three - 10-7 - with enough time left to pull things out.
Instead the Red Devils had three more penalties kill a couple of late drives before Wirt finally shut them down with about a minute remaining.
Casey Ritchie led Calhoun with 85 yards rushing while adding 53 more passing on six completions in 14 attempts.
Cole Ritchie added 54 yards on the ground while Moore had 38.
Miller led the Red Devils with five receptions for 45 yards while Lucas Wilson added one catch for eight yards.
Calhoun, now 2-7, ends its season next Friday night at Clay while Wirt, 1-7, is host to Roane County.
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