Homecoming night proved to be one of Danville’s toughest games this season.

The Admirals came back from 14 down to beat 6A Tates Creek, 27-24.

“We battled,” Danville coach Clay Clevenger said. “That’s all you can say. It was ugly, but we battled. We kept telling them, ‘keep competing, keep competing, keep competing.’”

The Admirals kept competing.

Tates Creek drove the ball through the air and on the ground in the first quarter, taking its first drive inside the red zone. A fumble in the end zone — recovered by Danville’s Ethan Downey — delayed the visitors’ first score, which came on their next drive. Quarterback Cameron Workman  hit Darryl Bell Jr. on a three-yard strike to open the scoring midway through the first quarter.

Danville didn’t take long to respond. A David Walker kick return in to Commodores’ territory, plus a 15-yard Tates Creek personal foul, gave Danville the ball at the Commodores’ 33.

The next play, D’Mauriae VanCleave ran 33 yards for a touchdown.

Just 17 seconds after Tates Creek scored, Danville responded.

The second quarter, however, started with a big momentum swing for Tates Creek.

Workman hit Devonta Clay for a 37-yard touchdown pass, with Clay coming down with Admirals’ corner Brennen McGwire with the ball. Referees ruled it a catch and a touchdown, pushing Tates Creek ahead 14-7.

Walker received carries out of the backfield for the Admirals with usual running back Don Harris injured, and on the next drive, fumbled to give Tates Creek a short field.

Clay and Workman would pair up again from four yards out to put the visitors ahead 21-7 with 7:31 left in the first half.

The momentum was entirely on the visitors’ sideline until a Danville drive late in the half.

With the ball in the red zone facing a 4th and 2, Danville quarterback Zach Thornton threw an incomplete pass to VanCleave in the backfield. Tates Creek recovered the ball and started to run it back, but the play was inadvertently whistled dead, which gave Danville another chance at 4th and 2.

Don Harris would rumble for a first down and Thornton would run in the Admirals’ second touchdown of the game to make the score 21-14 at halftime.

“It was a good football game, there was a lot of calls, a lot of everything it seems like,” Clevenger said. “We were able to get it, now we just have to mend up and get healthy for district.”

Calls went both ways and both sidelines disagreed. Tates Creek finished with nine penalties for 100 yards and had a player ejected for a punch thrown; Danville had 10 penalties for 82 yards.

Neither team scored in the third quarter, but Tates Creek hit a field goal as the fourth quarter began to take a two-score lead, 24-14.

Harris was unleashed in the second half, rumbling on the Ads’ first drive of the quarter for a 25-yard gain on a third down. He would be the one to score, putting the Ads’ within three points.

“With Don, we didn’t want to run him like we had to, some guys like that, but you get in the heat of the moment and guys want to compete and they want to win,” Clevenger said. “I’m proud of them, Tates Creek is a really good football team and we knew that coming in. To get a victory here is big for us.”

Tates Creek had three drives in the fourth quarter: Two ended on downs, one ended in a punt.

Danville’s second drive of the fourth quarter took three plays. Thornton hit Walker in the back of the end zone from 33 yards away, with Walker rising higher than the Tates Creek defender for the score.

“It was coming off of an emotional play, we try to do a double move after a play like that and we were able to get the corner to bite, got David some separation and he went up and made a great play on it,” Clevenger said.

The point after attempt was blocked, making the score 27-24.

Tates Creek would get the ball to midfield on its next drive, but a sack from Jaleel Warren — another player who has been banged up recently — turned the ball over to the Admirals on downs.

“That was a big play for us, for sure, to be able to get the ball back,” Clevenger said.

Tates Creek had another chance to score but the Admirals’ defense again came up with a stop.

“It was a good test against a big school, lots of numbers and a lot of athletes,” Clevenger said. “I thought our kids just competed. I thought in the first half, we got a little bit out of kilter at times. I thought we settled down at halftime, we played good football in the second half and made enough plays to win.”

 

At Danville

Tates Creek    7    14    0    3 –     24

Danville    7    7    0    13 –     27

First Quarter

Tates Creek – Darryl Bell 2 pass from Cameron Workman (Dozier Combs kick),6:46.

Danville – D’Mauriae Van Cleave 33 pass from Zach Tnornton (Tres Walker kick), 6:29.

Second Quarter

Tates Creek – Devonta Clay 37 pass from Workman (Combs kick),8:58.

Tates Creek – Clay 5 pass from Workman (Combs kick), 7:31.

Danville – Zach Thornton 1 run (Walker kick), :48

Fourth Quarter

Tates Creek – Combs 29 FG, 11:57.

Danville – Don Harris 1 run (Walker kick), 9:00.

Danville – David Walker 31 pass from Thornton (kick failed), 7:30.

 

TC    D

First downs    14    17

Rushing-Yds    35-89    37-131

Passing     232    185

Total Yards    321    316

Comp-Att-Int    18-34-1    16-28-0

Fumbles-Lost    1-1    3-2

Penalties-Yds    7-78    9-55

 

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING- Tates Creek, Laron Warner 21-86, Teonde White 8-14, Marcus Bosley 1-8,  Cameron Workman 3-3, Darryl Bell 1-0, Team 1-(minus 22). Danville, Don Harris 11-70, Zach Thornton 10-9, D’Mauriae VanCleave 5-30, David Walker 4-12, Darrian Logan 2-8, Warren Griffin 4-12, Team 1-(minus 10).

PASSING – Tates Creek, Cameron Workman 18-34-1-232. Danville, Thornton 16-28-0-185.

RECEIVING- Tates Creek, Miles Thomas 2-48, Darryl Bell 3-24, Jarrod Bauer 2-(minus 7), Coffey 1-37, Devonta Clay 4-70,Teonte White 4-30, Mikalob Coffey 1-37, Warner 1-16. Danville, VanCleave 7-76, David Walker 5-51, Jaleel Warren 4-36.