Even before Friday night’s game was delayed by lightning, Martinsville receiver Hunter Stroud had already struck.
The senior accounted for eight catches, 157 yards and three touchdowns in the opening half alone, leading the Class 4A No. 3 Artesians to a 40-7 victory at Franklin.
Martinsville improves to 5-0 overall for only the third time this century, joining the 2001 and 2018 squads, while the Grizzly Cubs drop to 2-3.
Stroud finished the contest with nine grabs for 206 yards; senior quarterback A.J. Reynolds completed 10 of 13 passes for 238 yards and ran for two more TDs.
“Yeah, they’re really good. They do a nice job. They’ve worked hard to develop that, obviously,” Grizzly Cubs coach Chris Coll said of Martinsville’s pass-catch combo. “What they’ve done to establish that is impressive.”
After playing the first two quarters, the teams had to wait out a lighting delay of 1 hour, 28 minutes before play resumed.By that point, Martinsville had built a comfortable 26-7 lead, Reynolds and Stroud hitting on all cylinders.
Three of Stroud’s grabs came during the game’s opening drive, a 13-play, 70-yard series capped by Reynolds’ 2-yard scoring run with 6:55 remaining in the first quarter.
Franklin did little with its first offensive series, enabling the Artesians to again show off the offense that averaged 45 points in its first four outings.
Starting at its own 15, Martinsville required seven plays to go the distance. Reynolds arched his aerial on third and 12 to Stroud just enough to make it over the hand of a Grizzly Cub defender, resulting in a 61-yard TD. The score grew to 19-0 at 5:38 of the second on a 6-yard Reynolds-to-Stroud connection on a fade route to the back corner of the end zone.
“They’re both great kids. Great friends. They put in the work, and they’re extremely, extremely coachable,” Artesians coach Brian Dugger said. “And they’re on the same wavelength. They understand the offense, they know what we like to attack, and they’re a special connection.”
On the ensuing kickoff, Martinsville’s pooch kick was mishandled by the Grizzly Cubs, giving the visitors the pigskin once more, this time at the Franklin 37. Reynolds’ 23-yarder over the middle to a wide-open — you guessed it — Stroud pushed the spread to 26-0 with 3:51 showing.
The Cubs’ offense finally got itself in gear late in the half, covering 59 yards in nine plays. Hard-charging senior running back Alex Leugers took it the final 3 yards up the middle for the 26-7 halftime score.
Martinsville easily outdistanced Franklin in total yardage in the first half, 241-91.
The clock was winding down to finish the 15-minute intermission when the game was delayed by lightning at 8:18 p.m. Play eventually resumed at 9:46 with a 3-yard scoring run from Reynolds and senior Austin Pryor’s 6-yard TD run accounting for the second-half points.
Leugers led Franklin offensively, carrying the football 20 times for 89 yards.
After a 2-0 start, the Grizzly Cubs have now lost three straight games. Franklin attempts to return to the win column on Friday when it travels to Mooresville.
“If we’d have fought better in the first half then I would blame it on the weather,” Coll said. “We didn’t play well in the first half. We didn’t play well in the second half.
“We’ll prepare for Mooresville, but really, it’s just getting back on the practice field and trying to be the best version of us. We’ve got a long way to go. We’re not real experienced, and so we’ll just keep working.”
