It was a tough night all around for Lee-Davis High School.
Just before getting the news that the field hockey team had lost 3-0 to Gloucester in the Class 5A South Regional Championship game in Virginia Beach, Lee-Davis' football team left their home field for the last time in 2013, the seniors more dejected and disappointed than anyone else.
Despite rushing for 415 yards, the Confederates' inability to score in the red zone cost them dearly, as Atlee held off Lee-Davis 34-17. With the win, the Raiders finished 9-1, they beat Lee-Davis in the regular season for the first time in Roscoe Johnson's tenure as head coach dating back to 2007, and clinched the #2 seed in the Class 5A South Central Zone Playoffs that begin next Friday.
UPDATE: With the loss, the only hope Lee-Davis has to slip into the 5A postseason is if Mills Godwin is upset by Thomas Jefferson Saturday afternoon in their season finale...
Reid McCoy sat out the first quarter for undisclosed reasons. Travis Barton's 34-yard completion into double coverage to Daniel Glymph set up a 5-yard touchdown run by Lamont Stubbs to make it 7-0 Atlee very early on.
The Confederates responded, driving inside the Atlee 10 before stalling. Stephen Hall's 30 yard field goal cut the Raiders lead to 7-3 halfway through the first. Neither team found the end zone for a quarter until Blake Stattelman got great blocking from the right side, going six yards for the score and a 10-7 Lee-Davis lead.
Atlee struck back, less than two minutes later, with McCoy running 19 yards to paydirt. Lee-Davis was resilient, driving again, and, on a 4th down from the Atlee 19, a handoff to Donald Kidd paid off big time. He went untouched into the end zone and the Confederates led 17-14 with 1:05 left to the half.
That's too much time to give Atlee. They counterpunched with a critical score, driving down the field in 55 seconds, McCoy scored again with his legs, this time after scrambling out of the pocket avoiding the Lee-Davis rush, for a 16-yard scamper. It was 21-17 at halftime.
Atlee won the toss, deferred to the second half, but quickly stalled on their first possession. Lee-Davis couldn't turn the tide in their favor, and the Raiders opened their first two-possession lead of the night when McCoy found Glymph in the back of the end zone, who twisted his body in mid-air to catch a pass on left shoulder while driving to his right. With 6:19 left 3rd quarter, it was 28-17.
It was then that Lee-Davis would, not once but twice, find themselves deep in the Atlee red zone. Once, to start the fourth quarter, after a fumble left them with 4th down at the 13, instead of kicking another 30-yard field goal to cut the lead to 8, they went for it. They failed.
Minutes later, they got the ball back, drove into the red zone. Again, rather than kick, they went for it on 4th down. Chase Mummau's pass was way over the head of his intended receiver. It was still an 11-point game.
The Raiders slammed the door when McCoy scored his third and final rushing touchdown from a yard out at 1:52 to go. An unfortunate series of events then occurred, the Confederates being called for three unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, as the Lee-Davis frustrations boiled over. There was one ejection.
For the Raiders, they took a giant step backwards in the penalty department tonight after a relatively mistake-free performance against Highland Springs a week ago. That, and making sure cooler heads prevail, will be key discipline issues addressed in practice heading into playoff week #1.
"We're not going to worry about the other team. We've got to worry about ourselves," Johnson told us on the post-game show on WHAN Radio. Though cognizant of the fact his players weren't penalized during the fracas after the final touchdown, he immediately gathered his team at midfield on his sideline, had them take a knee, and he proceeded to preach the gospel of discipline, lest a Raider made a mistake that would cost them not just an ejection, but a future playoff game appearance.
The 34-17 is not indicative of how close Lee-Davis was to winning the game. They rushed for 415 yards on the Atlee defense, a very impressive performance. But this game was decided by how Lee-Davis acted in the red zone, and that grade was a fail, at the worst possible time.
Our projections have Atlee hosting 7-3 Meadowbrook in a #2 vs. #7 first round matchup next Friday.
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Hanover moves into Class 4A South playoff action next week with a win behind them, 21-6 at Glen Allen, who despite the loss, clinch the school's first-ever playoff berth in just their third season. The Hawks finish 5-5, thanks to TD runs by Clayton Cheatham and Korbin Bordonie and tough defense. Our projections have them traveling to Portsmouth next Friday to face Churchland High School in a #6 vs. #11 seed contest.
Patrick Henry fell behind 28-7 to a one-loss Douglas Freeman team, but roared back on Senior Night in Ashland to score 19 unanswered points, cutting the 3rd quarter lead to 28-26. But the Rebels bounced back, pulling away in the fourth to win 41-26 to clinch the #3 seed in Class 5A South Central Zone with a 9-1 mark. Freeman is the only team with a win over Atlee so far in 2013.
For the Patriots, their maiden voyage under head coach Jonathan Clark ends at 2-8, wins coming over Thomas Jefferson and John Marshall. They will have a very good core of underclassmen returning, plus players from a successful JV team. But come next fall, it will have been six calendar years since the Patriots have had a winning season. As other county teams continue to make the post-season, the restlessness in Western Hanover should be expected to continue.
FIELD HOCKEY: With their 3-0 loss to Gloucester mentioned at the top of our post, Lee-Davis goes to 19-2 and will face 5A North Champion Mountain View in the State 5A Semifinals next Friday at noon at the National Training Center in Virginia Beach.....
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