Marty Gordon
All of our area teams will live to play another game Friday night.
Blacksburg shut out Christiansburg 35-0 Friday night to finish the season unbeaten and claim the top seed in 4C with home field advantage throughout the playoffs. The undefeated season is only the second in the past 20 years for BHS.
Eddie Sloss, in his first season at the helm of the Bruins, is pleased with the season thus far.
“We have been battle tested in a tough district with a even brutal schedule. Coming from behind on the road against perennial power house programs such as Lord Botetourt, Salem and Pulaski County shows a lot of resiliency and heart,” he said.
Eighth seeded Liberty Christian (4-6) will travel to Blacksburg Friday night in the first round of the playoffs. Sloss is excited about the playoffs and feels his team is ready.
“LCA is well coached and a very disciplined football team. We hope to continue to play with great intensity and match their discipline,” he said.
Sloss admits his team will have to be at the top of their game in all phases and play with great discipline in order to advance in state play.
Brian Mitchell is the Bruins top rusher with 97 carries for 620 yards, and QB Grant Johnston has completed 143 of 221 passes for 2,215 yards with seven interceptions. His top receiver has been Thomas Coffey who has 37 catches for 721 yards. Karim Mohamed has added 33 catches for 518 yards.
The Bruins have been without receiver Tiquest Terry, a UVA-recruit, for the past month with a broken wrist. Sloss is unsure of Terry’s availability in this first week of play.
Radford took the top spot in Region 2C and the Three Rivers District title with a 17-7 win over Glenvar. The win also gives Radford the home field advantage in the Class 2 ranks. Coach Matthew Saunders feels good how the regular season finished.
“I think the coaches and kids feel we have achieved one goal of ours. We achieved this goal through hard work, weight room, and team chemistry,” he said.
Radford’s 9-1 record is a complete turnaround from a year ago when it finished 2-8. Radford’s lone loss came to Region 1C’s top team Galax 41-21.
Radford will face Ft. Chiswell (5-5) in Friday’s first 2C round, and Saunders points out both teams are 0-0. “When you get in the playoffs, everybody record is 0-0. We must stay focused and hungry, and we have to take one game at a time,” he said.
The coach believes his team has to keep playing hard and have great defense and kicking game to keep up those winning ways.
“We just need to keep busting down the door and not test the waters,” he said.
Two pluses this season has been the play of QB Zane Rupe and tailback P.J. Prioleau. Rupe is 80 of 131 passing for 864 yards.
Meanwhile Prioleau, who is only a sophomore, has put up insane numbers rushing 166 times for 1,165 yards with 15 touchdowns.
Christiansburg backed into the postseason as Patrick County and Cave Spring both lost in the final Friday night. Second-year Coach Alex Wilkens has been pleased with the progress of his team this year.
“We have taken great strides in being competitive on Friday nights. We really struggled from a strength/physicality and speed perspective last year in every game and that hasn’t been the case as much this year. The teams in our division we have been very competitive with and have won or could have won each of those games. We have a ways to go against the top tier teams, but I feel like our kids have seen individual and collective success on the field and are learning how not to lose games,” he said.
Christiansburg (2-8) will travel to Lord Botetrout (8-2), the second seed in 3D and whose only losses (45-25) came to Blacksburg and to Northside (28-24).
They would beat Northside two weeks later 24-20 and then finish the season with a 68-26 win over William Fleming as Evan Eiler rushed for 257 yards on 16 carries with five touchdowns.
Eiler also returned a kickoff for another score. Tailback Hunter Rice added 168 yards on 20 carries. Rice now has 202 carries on the season for 1,432 yards with 18 touchdowns.
“Our team will have to play with great effort and togetherness for 48+ minutes to advance against Lord Botetourt. They are a very solid football team with legitimate state title aspirations and play with a lot of pride. We have to limit big plays defensively and find a way to sustain drives offensively to keep their offense off the field,” Wilkens said.
Other wins for Botetourt have come over: Bluefield (17-3), William Byrd (34-16), Rockbridge (66-6) and Harrisonburg (47-13).
The Blue Demons best play has been on the defensive side of the ball where Matson Stanley has compiled over 110 tackles this season, and Stanley will have to play the game of his career in facing the Terriers.
Sophomore Caleb Henley leads the team with three receptions for 641 yards.
“Our program is extremely excited to earn a playoff game. Many people would look at a 2-8 record as not deserving of making the playoffs, but our kids worked extremely hard to earn an opportunity to control our destiny at the end of the football season. This will always be our goal as long as I coach. When half of your schedule is against solid programs in higher divisions, every game is tough and you have to put your best foot forward every day to compete,” Wilken said.
He feels seeds 3 through 8 in the region are all pretty equal football teams with any team having a chance to win on any given night.
“A couple more things go our way this year and we feel like we could be the 3 seed instead of the 7. But the only difference between high seeds and low seeds is when you play the top teams and you have to go through them at some point so might as well be early in the playoffs. We are excited to play against Lord Botetourt,” he said.
Auburn (5-5) stays in the middle of the 1C pack and will play Narrows (9-1) on Friday night. Coach Cam Akers said this season has been exciting with some heartbreaking losses.
“My guys have worked hard all season and make the sacrifices necessary to be successful, but we have to continue to grow and learn to finish big time ball games. Excited to be in the playoffs and get another shot at Narrows,” he said.
The Eagles lost to Narrows 27-24 to open the 2018 season, and their other losses this season came to George Wythe, Ft. Chiswell, Galax and Grayson County (all playoff teams).
The team has outscored their opponents 268 to 201 this season, and one of the reasons has been the play of a three-headed running attack of Carter Brockman (112 carries for 554 yards with 11 touchdowns), Payson Kelly (105-657 with 12 touchdowns) and Triston Perry (64-562).
Akers said Narrows will be big upfront and have big play ability in the playoff opener. “Coach Lowe always does a great job with those guys and has a good group of ball players. Our guys are excited about the opportunity,” he said.
To advance, Akers said his team will have to play physical sound defense and win the line of scrimmage on offense.
Eastern Montgomery (3-7) picked up a win over Craig County to claim the number eight seed in 1C. Coach Jordan Stewart said his team’s season has been dominated by self-inflicted issues; turnovers, penalties, missed tackles, and missed opportunities.
“We have left way too many points off the scoreboard. We have been successful this season when we have limited things we could control,” he said.
The bright spot has been the running of Devin Owens who had 229 yards in the win against Craig this past Friday night with two touchdowns.
“Owens is our leading running back and picked up a lot of yards after first contact. Matt McClernon, playing fullback has led the way for Devin, while also rushing for 100 yards in a couple games and catching a lot of passes out of the backfield. Matt is also our leading tackler on our defense playing Middle Linebacker,” Stewart said.
Owens has 139 carries on the season with 846 yards. Against Craig, McClernon carried the ball 14 times for 135 yards and three touchdowns.
The Mustangs will travel to top seeded Galax (8-2) in the region opening round. Stewart knows his teams has their hands full with the Maroon Tide.
“Galax is a very good football team who can hurt you with the pass and run. It’s going to be up to us to slow down their success. They have played in the playoffs a lot in the past so we will have to match their intensity.
“For us to advance we will have to control the clock and tempo of the game, cause some turnovers, make some big plays, and keep everything in front of us on defense. We have to play a near perfect game on both sides of the ball because Galax doesn’t make many mistakes,” Stewart concluded.
The Blacksburg game can found on 97.1/93.1 FM, 810 AM. Radford’s game will be broadcast on 101.7 FM, while Christiansburg will be online at www.mix100fm.com.
Auburn and Eastern Montgomery’s games will not be broadcast.
