Max Ray ran for three touchdowns and accounted for most of the offense for Danville (3-1), and he was part of a defensive charge that held Corbin (1-3) to barely half of its average yardage.
But Ray said the key for the Admirals was the way they responded when their opponents did something well.
“We learned to keep our intensity at an equal level. No more getting down after they make a play, because we realize there’s more series in the game than just that one,” Ray said.
Harp said the Admirals still haven’t fixed all that needs fixing in their game, but he said they definitely made a number of repairs.
“I thought we did a lot of good things tonight. I¿thought we did some things pretty sloppy, too, just not as many,” he said.
One of the things that went their way was the turnover tally. They gave the ball up twice, but those turnovers were canceled out by Corbin’s five turnovers and the way Danville took advantage of them.
“We had to work on that in practice and get after it when the ball was on the ground,” Ray said.
Danville scored two of its first four touchdowns as a result of fumble recoveries by Jawan Grey and Devonta Alcorn. Tryston Ford later intercepted a pass, and he caused a late fumble that J.K. Howard recovered for the Admirals.
But the biggest takeaway may have come in the third quarter, when Ace Ray ran down Corbin quarterback Ty Cobb from behind to force a fumble that Matthew Logan recovered at the Redhounds’ 11-yard line. Three plays later, Jadarius Brown ran for a 5-yard touchdown that gave Danville a 36-15 lead and essentially put the game out of reach with 2 minutes, 45 seconds left in the period.
“Football’s a game of momentum. Last week, Boyle got that momentum on us in the second half and we couldn’t stop it (and) the wheels came off. Tonight we had momentum early, and then we lost it, and I¿think after Ace made that play ... and we stuck it in, then I think the momentum swung back to us and we controlled it from that point on,”¿Harp said.
Harp said one of the few things that disappointed him was that Danville missed a chance to put Corbin away much sooner than it did. The Admirals led 29-7 less than four minutes into the second quarter, then took over at the Redhounds’ 5-yard line after chasing Corbin punter Derek Mahan for an 18-yard loss, but they fumbled the ball away three plays later.
“What we’ve got to learn to do is finish, stick the dagger in,” Harp said. “We could’ve gone up 35-7 at that point, but we didn’t, and then (early) in the second half we allowed them to stick one on the board and get within two scores of us.”
Ray scored on runs of 2 and 17 yards, Marcus Brown scored on a 5-yard run and Alcorn threw a 47-yard touchdown pass to Grey to help Danville build its lead.
Ray capped the scoring with a 73-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter. He led the Admirals in rushing for the second straight game since returning from an injury with 110 yards on only 12 carries.
He also had a sack and several tackles on defense, where the Admirals held Corbin to 176 yards.
“I thought Max had a super game. I thought J.K. had an excellent game, I felt Michael Jones did, we started getting some good play out of Trevon Sandifer and I¿thought Nolan Spann did a good job in the secondary in really his first extended playing time all year long,” Harp said.
Danville was without running back-defensive back Devin Furlow for most of the night. Furlow suffered a deep thigh bruise early in the game, and Harp said it’s questionable whether he’ll play this week at Southwestern.
STATISTICS
At Corbin
