It was a cold night in Ridgeway Friday but the offenses were hot as Magna Vista played host to Lord Botetourt in the Region 3D football championship game. When the steam coming from the players’ helmets cleared the host Warriors advanced to this Saturday’s state semifinal with a 65-34 win.
The two teams combined for 99 points, 47 of which came in the fourth quarter. Seven touchdowns were scored in the final 12 minutes of the game, including four of 50 yards or longer.
“It got a little crazy,” said LB coach Jamie Harless. “I think both teams got tired of tackling.”
Botetourt scored first in this game on a 29-yard run by Quinten Jones. Magna Vista finished off a drive with an eight-yard run and it was 7-7 after one quarter.
The Warriors took a two-score lead in the second quarter, first on a 92-yard pass play from Simeon Moore to Asantae Scott, then Magna Vista scored on a 40-yard scoop-and-score fumble recovery to take a 21-7 lead. LB’s Angel Rigney passed two yards to Jerry Smith to cut the lead to 21-14 but Magna Vista closed the half with a 26-yard field goal for a 24-14 lead at intermission.
The Warriors put it away in the second half, scoring four straight touchdowns for a 52-14 lead. Magna Vista’s Ethan Dukes scored on a 56-yard run in the third quarter, then had TD runs of 50 and 19 yards to open the fourth.
Photos by Katy Perry
Botetourt had too tall a hill to climb at that point but the Cavaliers didn’t stop churning. Jones scored on 68- and 69-yard touchdown runs and Rigney scored on a 16-yard run to close out the game.
There was lots of offense to talk about after the game. Dukes finished with 238 yards rushing on a dozen carries for Magna Vista while Botetourt’s two-headed monster of Jones and Rigney combined for 370 yards rushing. Jones had 201 yards on 19 attempts and Rigney had 169 on 21 carries.
For the season, Jones and Rigney combined for 3,711 rushing yards on 539 attempts. That’s an average of just under seven yards per attempt for the season, and they combined to run for 46 touchdowns, 27 for Jones and 19 for Rigney. Angel also threw 13 touchdown passes, seven of which went to Jones. Quinten also threw a touchdown pass and returned a punt for a score as he had a hand in 36 touchdowns for the season.
With the loss the Cavaliers finished the season at 9-4, their 14th straight winning season since Harless took over in 2012. Botetourt hadn’t had a winning season in 11 years before Harless was hired as head coach.
Last Friday’s game was the 40th playoff game for the Cavaliers in the Harless era, with a 26-14 post-season record. In the 52 seasons prior to Harless’ arrival Lord Botetourt had played in a total of eight playoff games and won just once, in 1984 under Doug Ward.
“I thought we had a good season,” said Harless. “I’m absolutely overwhelmed with our kids exceeding preseason expectations. We were a couple plays away from winning 11 football games.”
Magna Vista will advance to the Class 3 state semifinal in Norfolk this Saturday to take on Lake Taylor as they attempt to win their third state championship. The Warriors won back-to-back titles in 2014 and ’15, including a 47-21 win over LB in the 2015 championship game at Liberty University.
