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Mar. 5—PEARISBURG, Va. — Giles High School’s Jeff Williams got his 100th career victory as a head coach against Floyd County this past Saturday.
The Spartans will be doing their utmost to bring him the 101st when Giles (1-0) takes on Carroll County (2-0) in a Three Rivers District game at Blacksburg High School on Friday night.
Last week’s opener was a nail-biter, not ending until Preston Whitlock kicked a game-winning 23-yard field goal for the 20-18 win over the Buffaloes.
“I knew it was going to be a really tough game. Floyd’s got a really tough football team. They’ve lost their first two games in, like, 12 seconds,” said Williams, who doesn’t recall having collected a victory on a game-winning field goal at the end since Brett Whitlow hit one to lift the Spartans to a 17-14 win over Appomattox in the second round of the 2013 playoffs.
That bit of trivia — along with the Whitlow connection— are meaningful coincidences for Spartans fans, since that occurred during Giles’ 15-0 state championship season
The Spartans have always taken the kicking game seriously, however, and this year is no different. Preston Whitlock’s decisive boot was his second field goal of the game. He also hit both of his PAT kicks in a tight game when every point was at a premium. He’s got a good leg, the Spartans head coach said.
“We’ve had some good ones … we really have. And this one we’ve got now kicked three field goals against Floyd last year,” Williams said. “He kicked a couple in the end zone on kickoffs [last week] and that helped us, too.”
Another subtext to Williams’ historic win is that it occurred in a context where the mere opportunity to play high school football has been a precious commodity.
“It’s a marker and a milestone, I reckon. But I don’t look at it any different way than win 46, win 72, win 23 … whatever. If you win a game you win a game and they’re getting tougher to win all the time,” said Williams.
“The biggest takeaway was we finally got to play a football game. Our kids finally got to play a football gamew and I was so happy for them about that, I wasn’t thinking much about the 100th win. But the kids brought attention to it because they gave me a plaque after the game, which was really nice. I didn’t expect anything like that,”
Carroll County opened with a win over Floyd County and picked up a 21-7 win over Bassett. They are coached by Monty Chipman, who was hired in 2020. The Cavaliers offense has been led by running back Tristan Peckram and hoss of a quarterback Brady Dalton.
The game is the Spartans’ second consecutive on Blacksburg’s artificial turfe. Williams said neither Giles’ playing nor its practice field has been in useable condition since the preseason officially started. Kickoff for Friday’s game is at 7 p.m.
Saturday Games
Lebanon (1-0)
at Graham (1-0) 1 p.m.
The G-Men welcomed Richlands head coach Thad Wells to the Southwest District last week with a neighborly 33-13 victory at Ernie Hicks Stadium.
Jamir Blevins had a sturdy debut as Graham’s new starting quarterback, passing for 199 yards with no scoring strikes — but also no interceptions. He rushed for 64 yards and punched in three short-yardage touchdowns of 1-, 4- and 3-yards. Clearly, G-Men head coach Tony Palmer did not let all the offensive cats out of the bag last week.
Lebanon piled up 331 yards rushing by committee in a 27-6 win over Honaker last Sunday. How much of that momentum will carry over into Mitchell Stadium? We’ll see.
Marion (1-0)
at Tazewell (0-1), 1 p.m.
The Bulldogs met the elephant last week, taking on a Class 1 football dynasty that punches above its weight like the Appalachia High School teams of the 1990s. The Riverheads defense contained and disrupted Tazewell’s plans so effectively that the Scarlet Hurricane may not have gotten the best read on what the Bulldogs explosive offense is actually capable of.
Marion opened with a 14-5 win over Chilhowie. Hopefully on Saturday, fans at Bulldog Stadium/Witten Field will get to see the kind of action and antics out of Tazewell’s talent-laden team that they have so long awaited.
Richlands (0-1)
at Va. High (1-0), 1 p.m.
A 33-13 loss to Graham in last week’s opener shouldn’t prove too discouraging a setback for the Blue Tornado, which got 90 yards rushing out of veteran Sage Webb in the opener. New quarterback Gavin Cox passed for 125 yards, including an 11-yard scoring strike to Noah Spencer. Cox gave up only one interception late in the game.
The Bearcats opened with a 19-12 win over Grundy. Virginia High is no pushover and is at home to boot. Local fans will get their first look at the kinds of adjustments new head coach Thad Wells makes between Game 1 and Game 2. Football is endlessly interesting.
George Wythe (0-0)
at Bland (0-1), 2 p.m.
A 49-yard touchdown run by the Bears’ Tanner Myers was the only offensive fireworks Bland County displayed in last week’s 67-6 season opening loss to Galax. But for a program that hasn’t existed since 2018, consider that score a lit fuse.
Memory of the Maroon Tide’s regular season-drubbing of the Maroons is too faded to be of any use in comparisons (it wasn’t all that useful in the 2019 post-season, to be honest). Thanks to George Wythe’s opener with Rural Retreat having been postponed, Bland County doesn’t have the benefit of having scouted the Maroons’ present-day tendencies in advance. New Bears head coach Travis Reed certainly knows enough to see a hard-nosed opponent headed Bland’s way.
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