When Christopher Newport canceled Saturday's football game against visiting Wesley because of Tropical Storm Hanna, it looked as if the kickoff to the Captains' season wouldn't occur until Sept. 20.
Officially, it won't.
Unofficially, Captains coach Matt Kelchner managed to find a way to squeeze a game in Monday.
"Oddly enough, I got a call from Mike Clark at Bridgewater about 10 days ago begging me to help him out of a jam," Kelchner said. "He had a JV game scheduled this past Sunday with Fork Union's post-graduate team but didn't have enough healthy bodies to play. And Fork Union had a contract."
Bridgewater offered to pay for one of the two team busses to get the Captains to the game; Kelchner then asked if Fork Union could move the game to Monday and the deal was done.
After CNU lost its opener to the weather, Kelchner decided to take most of his team to Fork Union on Monday, rather than just a JV unit. Division III teams are limited to 10 regular-season games a year, so losing the Wesley game allowed the Captains to play whomever they wanted against Fork Union.
"We left behind 14 players for the trip to Fork Union," Kelchner said, "some of our better players and anybody who was hurt. We ended up taking about 90 guys. And Fork Union fed us while we were there."
The score?
"Since it was officially a scrimmage from our end, we are not allowed to divulge the score," Kelchner said.
Fork Union's Web site reported it as a 17-7 CNU victory.
"They've got some Division I signees who, for one reason or another, ended up there," Kelchner said. "They play pretty good football and we were able to work up a sweat."
For now, the Captains are in an off week.
"And we need it," Kelchner said. "We play Salisbury next and they run that flexbone, double-wing option.
"We need all the preparation for that we can get."
Rich Radford, (757) 446-2463, rich.radford@pilotonline.com
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