Christiansburg defeated Hidden Va
lley 31-6 last Friday, and a big reason why the Blue Demons advanced to the Region Finals was because of Joey Augustin, scored all 4 of their touchdowns in the win. But neither Joey or Head Coach Tim Cromer places all the credit on the runningback.
Joey Augustin, FFE Player of the Week described it by saying, "I thought my performance was good but I'd rather say that the linemans performance was better than mine because they made the holes for me and I just do what I had to do to get to the endzone."
Tim Cromer, Christiansburg Head Coach, "He had a really good game. He's a very dynamic player when he gets in space. We try to get him the ball several different ways and when he got the football he got it done. A lot of that credit thought, goes to our offensive line and our wide receivers and the other backs because I thought we did a really good job blocking on Friday. To have someone like Joey with the football he can finish plays for you."
With those big holes his blockers created, Joey ran for 165 yards on 15 carries against the Titans, and when he sees the open space, he's a man on a mission to get 6.
"I just think of the touchdown. Like coach said-- hit your head on the goal post if you can I just want to get to a touchdown as fast as I can." said Joey Augustin.
And the word "fast" is definitely something synonomous with Joey, who may not be the biggest guy out there, but he can certainly hurt you with his speed-- something he's developed from running track in the off-season.
Joey Augustin says "My motto is, not trying to be cocky or anything, but you're gonna have to catch me before you can hit me. So that's what I just think of in my head."
Tim Cromer said, "He's deceptively big because of how tall he is. He weighs about 180 pounds. He's 6'3'' and he can run. He's an outstanding track athlete. Coach Gwynn and them did a good job of getting him faster. He's a little bigger than you think."
The Christiansburg offense has been a work in progress this season, but after a 4-game lose streak in the middle of the season, the Blue Demons have rattled-off 3 straight wins, and seem to have found a scheme that works-- with Joey and 2 other backs driving the offense with Mack Muldoon at quarterback.
"We've switched everything, a lot of stuff up. Like now Tanner Reed's in the backfield with us-- me and De'Quan and it's harder because its harder for people to defend us because we got 3 good runningbacks out there and Mack's playing a pretty good job at quarterback so it's just pretty hard to defend us sometimes." Joey Augustin.
"We had some success with him carrying the football and as the season went on we made the change. We decided we wanted to try and see what it would be like for him to be at quarterback but after 4 games of that we realized it wasn't so much the losing streak, it was just the lack of production on offense. We weren't scoring points so we said let's try to move it back. We've gotten back to kind of what we do traditionally wing-T wise." Tim Cromer.
But however the Blue Demon offense has lined-up, one thing has remained constant-- Joey Augustin has been the driving force.
Tim Cromer said, "We have leaned on him a lot and when he made the transition to quarterback he took that and did well. And when we made the decision to put him back at halfback, he's just a team player. He knows he's going to get the football. We're going to throw him the ball, hand him the ball and have the ball snapped to him. We're going to get it in his hands and he's a team guy. He doesn't care where he's lining up. He knows we're gonna get him the football."
"It's cool. Wherever he wants to put me I can play. I can just do it. Wherever he puts me I know he's going to try and get me the ball regardless." Joey Augustin.
