Gloucester earned its first Peninsula District football victory of the season Saturday with a 19-3 win over Heritage that broke a 15-game district losing streak for the Dukes.

GHS coach Sonny Merchant credited much of Saturday’s success to a shuffling of the Dukes’ offensive line, a change resulting from necessity more so than strategy.

The offensive changeup was due largely to the absence of starting center Ryan Toms, who sustained a concussion in practice last week. That led Merchant to replace Toms with Landon Smith. Another change of positions replaced Smith and some backup players were called up to the line. The resulting offensive combination of Robert Ellison, Jarrell Bennett, Landon Smith, Brandon Minter and Carlos Pollard along with Tyler Wood opened things up for the Dukes.

"They came together in a tough situation and played well. They executed as best as we have all year, and gave Brandon (Petty) big holes," Merchant said. Gloucester took advan...