Bearcats beat Red Riders, 27-6

FOUR-FOR-FOUR! Grafton’s junior feature back, Alex Aichele, ran for a total of 108 yards during a 23-6 victory over the Weir Red Riders last Friday night on McKinney Field. It was his fourth straight 100--plus-yards performance of the season.

GRAFTON -- Both the home-standing Grafton Bearcats and the Weir Red Riders scored an easy touchdown here on McKinney Field last Friday night, but only the home team produced enough offense to score in the conventional way.

Grafton’s Ryan Helmick simply fell on a blocked punt in the end zone for six points, after Weir’s first offensive possession of the ball game basically went no where.

Then, in the third quarter, Jaquan Ware became ‘Johnny on the spot’ for the Red Riders, pouncing on his teammate’s fumble into the end zone at the 0:34 mark of the third quarter to give Weir its only six points of the ball game.

Near the end of the first half, the Bearcats pieced together an 18-play, 84-yard drive to take a 13-0 lead.

The biggest play of that drive was a 27-yard pass from quarterback Ivy Bartlett to Zak Kimbrew.

However, it was Corey Moore that raced across the goal line from nine yards out for the touchdown, and the ensuing extra-point kick by Zach Rowand, which sent the Bearcats into the dressing room with a 13-0 lead at the intermission.

Grafton then accepted the second-half kick-off, and drove 73 yards in seven plays to extend its lead to 20-0, with 8:25 left to play in the third quarter.

After Alex Aichele returned a short kick-off eight yards to Grafton’s 27-yard line, Bartlett connected with Thomas Peters for a 41-yard pass-and-run play, coming right after a play for minus-six yards.

Bartlett then hooked up with James Snider to cover another 22 yards of wet grass.

Aichele ran for 11 yards, and then Bartlett carried twice to account for the final ten yards, including an eight-yard sprint into the end zone, after the Bearcats were guilty of a five-yard penalty.

Rowand’s kick then made it 20-0.

Weir had its only real drive of the night later in the third quarter, which resulted in Ware’s easy score.

Grafton went on to add a fourth-quarter touchdown on a 31-yard run by Aichele, who wound up with 108-yards-rushing on 18 carries. That marked his fourth consecutive 100-plus-yards effort of the season...He had 164 yards against Philip Barbour, 119 yards against Notre Dame, and chalked up 101 yards at Summers County, to go along with this 108 yards against Weir.

In all, Grafton rushed for 178 yards during this contest with Weir, and added 115-yards-passing for a total of 293 yards in total offense.

Weir gained 92 yards on the ground, and threw for an additional 72 yards, to wind up with 164 total yards. The Red Riders were led by their quarterback, William Larch, who ran for 56 yards on 19 carries, and wound up with a 5-of-15 passing effort for all 72 yards in Weir’s passing attack. So, Larch played a role in 128 of Weir’s 164 yards.

The Bearcats, now 2-2 on the season, will host the Robert C. Byrd Eagles this Friday, September 21, here on McKinney Field.