Gretna's defense flies high in homecoming win

GRETNA — While being a graduate assistant coach at Virginia Tech in 1990, Gretna coach Kevin Saunders learned from the best that defense and special teams can win football games.

Gretna’s defense forced five Radford turnovers and Andre Dickerson returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown as Gretna celebrated its homecoming with a 20-14 victory over Radford on Friday night.

“They’re really good defensively and they took some things away from us,” Radford coach Matthew Saunders said. “Kevin does a good job with defense. He knows kind of what I’m going to do and they took some stuff away.”

The Hawks (3-1) were swarming around the ball as Radford (1-3) was only able to muster 85 yards of offense. The Bobcats finished with 150 yards of total offense thanks to a late touchdown drive that closed the scoring.

Radford quarterback Dontae Carter found Sam Mumpower down the left side for a 25-yard touchdown. The Bobcats were unable to recover the onside kick and Gretna held on for the win.

Gretna’s offense was clicking in the first half and it was jumpstarted by Dickerson’s 96-yard return for a touchdown on the opening kickoff.

Hawks quarterback Nick Miller completed 5 of 8 passes for 111 yards and two touchdowns before he aggravated his injured right ankle on a roll-out play late in the second half.

Before the injury, Miller connected with Ted Jennings for a 25-yard score in the first quarter and found Kevin Dale down the right sideline for a 55-yard touchdown on the first play of the second half.

With Miller unable to go in the second half, Jennings took his place and ran the offense well, despite not attempting a pass. The Hawks (3-1) controlled the ball for the majority of the second half and the defense forced three turnovers.

“It was great to control the clock,” Saunders said. “I thought for the most part, we played a really smart football game in the second half with Ted back there.”

Jennings rushed for 27 yards on eight carries and added two receptions for 42 yards. Dickerson had a game-high 81 yards rushing on 14 carries and Dale finished with a game-high 68 yards receiving.

“I felt they had three big plays — they had two long passes and the kickoff return — and I just felt we could give the 20-yard out and stuff like that,” Matthew Saunders said, “but we couldn’t give up the big long play and we did.”

Carter completed five of his first six passes for 51 yards. However, his next five passes fell incomplete, including two interceptions by Jennings. Carter was never able to regain that rhythm, finishing 9 of 21 for 91 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions.

Radford finished with 59 yards rushing on 30 attempts.

“The defense basically wins ball games,” Jennings said. “I knew they were going to come out and pass the ball, because that’s our weakness right now in secondary. I stepped up and made big plays.”

Gretna 20, Radford 14
Radford 7 0 0 7 - 14
Gretna 13 7 0 0 - 20
First quarter
G-Andre Dickerson 96 kick return (Jelmer Pijpers kick), 11:47
G-Ted Jennings 29 pass from Nick Miller (pass failed), 5:27
R-Dontae Carter 14 run (Michael Goodman kick), 2:29
Second quarter
G-Kevin Dale 55 pass from Miller (Pijpers kick), 11:52
Fourth quarter
R-Sam Mumpower 25 pass from Carter (Goodman kick), 2:06

Team statistics
Radford Gretna
First downs 10 8
Rushes-yards 30-59 36-117
Yards passing 91 111
Passing 9-21-3 5-8-0
Total offense 150 228
Fumbles-lost 2/2 2/1
Penalties-yards 5-36 15-98
Punts-average 3-32.3 5-30.2

Individual statistics
Rushing: R-Carter 19-43, Kevin Adkins 7-19, DJ Palmer 3-2, Mumpower 1-(-5). G-Dickerson 14-81, Jennings 8-27, Darion Jefferson 2-10, Miller 6-7, Antony Reynolds 3-1, Everett Witcher 1(-1), Team 2-(-8).
Passing: R-Carter 9-21-3 91. G-Miller 5-8-0 111.
Receiving: R-Pamler 4-31, Mumpower 2-26, Ryan Patterson 2-21, Josh Smith 1-13. G-Dale 2-68, Jennings 2-42, Gunnar Saunders 1-1.
Interceptions: G-Jennings 2, Dale 1. Sacks: G-Rory Haskins 1, Joe Baugh .5, Antwan Mease .5.
Records: Radford 1-3, Gretna 3-1.