Friday football: No. 9 Cox 31, First Colonial 17

By Chic Riebel

The Virginian-Pilot

VIRGINIA BEACH

You’re up by a touchdown with less than five minutes to play against an opponent that wiped out a 17-point lead earlier in the half and your playoff hopes are in jeopardy.

You’ve run the ball for more than 230 yards and your quarterback has completed just 1 of 6 passes.

So what do you do?

If you’re Cox coach Bill Stachelski, you call for a bomb.

If you’re senior wide receiver Robert Thrasher, you catch it and turn it into a 40-yard TD that clinches a 31-17 win over First Colonial and a Division 6 playoff berth Friday night at Cox.

“I was overwhelmed when coach sent in the play,” said Thrasher, who set up the score with an interception on the previous play. “I felt like he put it up to me to put the game away for us.”

“We knew we wanted to put a nail in the coffin,” said Stachelski, whose 7-3 Falcons will play at 8-2 Grassfield in the Division 6 quarterfinals next Friday. “Thrasher actually came to us and said he had a mismatch. … We had confidence that our guy could go up and get it. ”

The go-ahead score came on Cox’s previous possession when quarterback D.J. DiNardo, who rushed for 120 yards and two touchdowns, set up his own 10-yard scoring run with a 35-yard punt return.

“That punt return was the turning point of the game in my opinion,” Stachelski said. “D.J.’s made great plays for us all year.”

He made a lot of them in the first half when Cox went up 17-0. But First Colonial (5-5), which was still in playoff contention coming into the game, scored 17 unanswered points with an all-hands-on-deck approach that resulted in four players passing the ball, eight players running it and a host of crazy plays.

The Patriots got a 44-yard field goal from Mike Mugler, touchdown runs of 9 and 20 yards from Darryl Brown and 81 yards passing and 32 yards rushing from Michael Gancio, the third quarterback into the game.

Afterward, Cox had plenty to feel good about, especially the 19 seniors. They have made the only two playoff appearances in school history while posting back-to-back 7-3 records, something no Cox team has done in at least two decades.

“It took awhile to come together,” Thrasher said, “but we’ve finally made Cox a football school.”

Notable stats: FC–Mike Byrn 11-66 rushing; Darryl Brown 6-42, 2 TDs rushing; Cox–Devaul Peterson 11-86, TD rushing.

Chic Riebel, (757) 446-2367, chic.riebel@pilotonline.com