Stafford strolls past Albemarle

After Friday night’s game against Stafford, Albemarle will likely spend the next week trying to purge their memory of Indians receiver Dexter McDougle.

In their last home game of the year, the Patriots watched McDougle run wild as the Indians walked away with a 37-14 victory.

Whether through the air or on the ground, the Indians’ senior playmaker had a knack for finding the end zone. McDougle had four catches for 178 yards and picked up two of his four touchdowns on receptions of 83 and 76 yards.

“Their linebackers were blitzing and I’m supposed to run a certain route, but I can check it down on the read,” McDougle said. “I just cut over the middle every time, it was open and after I caught the ball, I just used my legs.”

He scored two more times rushing the ball and finished with 25 yards on five carries.

“It was an exciting first half for us,” said Indians coach Chad Lewis. “Dexter is very explosive. He has tremendous hands and the way he can change directions — he’s just extremely good.”

It was a frustrating first half for Albemarle (3-6, 1-5 Commonwealth) as the Patriots were facing a 14-0 deficit after 12 minutes. The Indians (4-6, 4-2) doubled their lead by the end of the half.

The Patriots had three first-half turnovers, twice on downs and once on an interception.  Albemarle found the red zone on two occasions, but penalties forced them out of scoring distance.

“We moved the ball several times, but we just couldn’t come up with a play in crucial situations,” said Albemarle coach Rick Vrhovac.

However, things were different in the second half. The Patriots managed to keep the ball out of McDougle’s hands and held Stafford to just nine points for the rest of the game.

“You hate to think that you were flat for senior night, but I don’t know,” Vrhovac said. “Because we came out in the second half a completely different team. We ran around, we played with emotion.”

Not only did the defense stop the bleeding, the Patriots finally got the wheels rolling on offense. Jeremy Robinson threw for a pair of touchdowns, finding Tyler Molinaro for a 25-yard score in the third quarter and Zach Vrhovac on an 18-yard pass late in the fourth.

Robinson finished the night with 159 yards passing to go along with 110 yards on the ground.

“We went to the chalkboard because we had to solve some of things they were doing to us,” coach Vrhovac said of the adjustments. “Offensively, we just got the ball spread around into the hands of our playmakers and let them do some things.”

Albemarle came into the game hoping to pick up a win for their seniors, who were playing for the last time in front of the home crowd.

After that idea went out the window in the first half, the Patriots are hoping they can pick up a win in their last game of the year on the road against Riverbend.

“Our focus has to be ending the season with our seniors going out winners and our young kids having a win to work with in the off season,” coach Vrhovac said.