Bluefield – The streak is over.
Suffering through a four-game losing streak in the series, Bluefield’s young squad of Beavers snapped the skid, stifling a mistake-prone Graham offense en route to a 20-10 victory over the G-Men Friday night in the season opener for both teams at Mitchell Stadium.
The night belonged to the Beavers, specifically a pair of sophomores in quarterback Max Simpson and receiver Pax Calhoun. Calhoun led the assault with a pair of touchdown receptions as well as an interception and a fumble recovery.
“Our coaching staff and our players worked like dogs to get to this point,” Bluefield head coach Fred Simon said. “And I’m proud of all of them. Our players wanted it, our coaches wanted it and our community wanted it and we didn’t leave them hurt. I’m glad it happened and I’m proud of everybody. I couldn’t have asked for anything better tonight.”
Simpson, who connected on touchdown passes of 15, 8 and 22 yards, found Calhoun six times for 52 yards with the pair linking for the game’s first two touchdowns.
“They were sending pressure, they were trying to get to me but we have too many athletes for them to do that and we showed them,” Simpson said.
The sophomore signal caller completed 16 of 21 attempts on the night for 130 yards in addition to his three touchdown passes, doing most of his damage in the first half. His first toss, a 15-yard fade to Calhoun in the back right corner of the end zone, was hauled in over the shoulder to cap a nine-play 80-yard drive.
“That was the game plan – we started off short and they were really on that and they were playing it,” Simpson said. “They brought the safeties on our slots and we have better athletes so we just threw it.
“I saw my guy versus someone that can’t guard him,” Simpson said of his scoring strike to Calhoun.
The G-Men, rallied with a 30-yard field to open the second quarter but another 80-yard touchdown drive from Simpson and Co. was capped with a third-and-goal touchdown pass to Calhoun from the 8. Bad turned to worse for the visitors on the scoreboard shortly after when A.J. Bradshaw fumbled the ensuing kickoff and the Beavers recovered.
It took Simpson just one play to connect with Tylee Simon, who added an interception later on defense, for a 22-yard score and a 20-3 lead with 7:30 to play in the half.
The Beaver offense netted just 32 yards the rest of the way but the defense picked up the slack. Calhoun’s interception of Graham quarterback Dalton Roberts at the Bluefield 39 on the ensuing drive flatlined Graham’s offense. A punt and turnover on downs followed before the intermission but aside from one drive it was mostly the same for the G-Men.
A Gabe Lilly 7-yard touchdown run with 5:43 to go in the third quarter accounted for the final points before Graham’s next three drives ended in a a pair of fumbles, one recovered by Calhoun and Simon’s interception.
While the turnovers were key, the play of defensive lineman Ja’Myere Harris was just as pivotal as his two second half sacks kept the G-Men, who faced an average distance of 15.7 yards to go on third down, off schedule.
“I’m really happy for (Harris)” Simon said. “He’s basically the only starting senior on the team. He battled like a dog and he’s lost some weight to be quick. Just happy he had that performance because you have to have some quick linemen and we did.”
For Graham it looked like a Week 1 performance – four turnovers, nine penalties and multiples drops that grounded the passing game.
Douglas Palmer eventually took over for Roberts at quarterback in the second half and found success rushing the ball before sacks and errant snaps skewed his stat line. But he suffered from many of the same issues that plagued the offense when it was manned by Roberts.
Still, they struggled the wholly solve the Beavres.
“I thought they picked up something we were doing in the first half and through the third quarter,” Coach Simon said. “Once we cut that out we ended up being fine. They were picking up some stunts and stuff so when we stopped it we did a fine job there.”
For the Beavers it was the first time they won their season opener since 2020, making strides with a younger team.
“They’ve deiced to work and listen and that’s been the change,” Simon said. “We’ve worked them and they haven’t complained. That’s what’s changed. You gotta work hard to have a chance and they’ve chose to do that.”
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