Lovingston
Nelson County, VA
By Lou Jones
Nelson County Governors Football Club
Conventional football wisdom says that young teams with new offensive schemes take a while to gel….
So much for conventional wisdom.
It was truly a night for the record books as the Nelson Governors exploded out of the gate to start 2012 with a dominating 64-47 road win over the Dragons of William Monroe. Behind a crushing performance from an offensive line that features just one senior, the Govs rolled up over 700 yards and nine touchdowns on the ground (that’s not a typo, folks). So dominant was the ground attack that Nelson didn’t attempt a single pass.
Leading the way on offense was senior quarterback Tyler Vest. Operating out of the team’s newly installed pistol offense, Vest ran through, around, and over the Dragons for 454 yards, the second best effort in Nelson history and the fifth highest in Virginia high school history. Vest also reached the end zone six times. Adding balance to the assault was running back Devonte Turner, who bolted for 257 yards and three scores.
The evening marked the unveiling of an impressive multi-million dollar athletic complex at William Monroe, but the evening did not go as the overflow crowd had hoped. The contest was tight early, with Monroe countering Nelson’s punishing ground game with a quick-hitting, balanced attack. The Dragons and Govs traded touchdowns twice during a hard fought first quarter before Nelson seized the momentum and put its foot on the gas- hard. The Govs lead gradually ballooned to 64-31 before both teams emptied their bench, allowing Coach Mark Wells’s team to gain valuable playing time for the backups while the Dragons added some cosmetic scores late.
As is often the case in season openers, the Friday night air was filled with penalty flags, and unfortunately most of them were directed at Nelson. Correcting the mistakes which led to the abnormal number of penalties will obviously be high on the team’s priority list in practice this week as the team puts this game in the rear view mirror and prepares for Central Senior of Lunenburg. However, the fans who made the trip north from Nelson, to witness history, won’t likely forget this game anytime soon.
Next Friday 8.31.12 Nelson plays at Lunenburg Central.
