Published: November 11, 2009 11:16 pm      

Prep football

Richwood running back Brown tops 2,000-yard plateau

RICHWOOD — Dustin Brown wanted 2,000 yards pretty badly.

His line wanted it even more.

Brown entered last Friday night’s regular-season finale with Gilmer County needing 310 yards to surpass the magical plateau.

By the half, Brown had rolled up 265 yards and the Lumberjacks were in control 54-0, just 24 minutes away from the school’s first perfect season in 56 years.

But Brown didn’t have to lobby his head coach.

“I told Dustin that he had one series in the second half, and if he didn’t get it, he wasn’t going to get it,” Richwood coach Jason Rogers said. “I know he wanted it, but his teammates wanted it for him.”

One series was all he needed.

Brown rolled up 46 yards on that one series to finish the regular season with 2,001 yards.

“I definitely wanted to get it,” Brown said. “But I wouldn’t have been mad if coach had taken me out. All we were concentrating on was getting the win. Getting (2,000) was just an extra perk.

“The guys on the line, they’ve been real supportive. They kept pushing me to get it. It’s all on those guys anyway. They kept saying we could do it and they blocked their hearts out.”

Brown had passed 1,000 yards in the sixth week of the season.

“That’s when the line guys started saying we could get 2,000,” Brown said. “Those guys deserve all the credit. They make it easy for us.”

More important for Brown, his offensive line and the rest of the Lumberjacks were finishing the season 10-0 and ranked No. 3 in the state. That sets up a Saturday afternoon matchup in Richwood with No. 14 Pendleton County (7-3) in the first round of the Class A playoffs.

Quite a step for the seniors like Brown.

“We never even had a winning season before, much less the playoffs or going undefeated,” Brown said. “To do all this, I couldn’t ask for any more. Our goal was to make the playoffs. Now that we’ve done that, we have new goals.”

One of those is to win and advance.

“We’ve been watching film (on Pendleton) every day,” Brown said. “They’ve got a good passing attack. Their quarterback is good, they have a good running back. But I have a lot of faith in our secondary.”

And the offense, led by Brown and quarterback Sam Tindal. The dynamic duo have combined for nearly 3,500 rushing yards.

With Brown’s weighty numbers — which include 27 rushing touchdowns, four receiving touchdowns and an interception return for a score — Rogers says he hasn’t seen one better.

“I think he’s the best back to play here, but I haven’t seen them all,” Rogers said. “The best I’d seen was Joey Underwood, but I think I’d still have to go with Dustin.”

Brown, though, said he only has to look at his family album to find better.

“I don’t really see myself being the best,” Brown said. “There are loads of backs who have come through here that went on to bigger and better things than I ever will. It’s a huge honor that coach would say that, but I’m not sure it’s true.”

His great-uncle, the late Dick Nicholson, who went on to play at WVU, is one back he knows had a huge career at Richwood. He went on to play in the Canadian Football League.

His great-great-uncle, the late Frank Montrose, is also regarded as one of Richwood’s all-time greats.

And although he didn’t play at Richwood, Frank Nester of Ravenswood, a cousin of Brown, was WVU’s placekicker in the early 1970s.

In fact, Nester was at a kicking camp Brown attended last year. In October, Brown kicked a 35-yard field goal in the last seconds to beat Valley 47-46.

“I guess maybe I got (football) in my genes,” said Brown, who didn’t start playing the sport until his eighth-grade year.

How far he’ll go, Brown doesn’t know. He has yet to be recruited. By anyone.

“Maybe in the playoffs, hopefully (a college) will see something,” he said.

Right now, though, his focus is squarely on keeping the winning streak alive.

“We need to keep winning because there is no ‘next week,’” Brown said. “We want to keep playing. We want to keep it going.”

And if he does, can he somehow reach 3,000?

He laughed at the thought.

“I know the line guys will be pushing for it,” he said. “That would be crazy good. But it’s not something that means anything. We just want to finish it out the best we can.”

— E-mail:

demorrison@register-herald.com