After disposing of Hidden Valley in the opening round of the Region 3D playoffs last Friday, the Lord Botetourt football team will head to Christiansburg for the region semifinals this Friday. Game time is 7 p.m. at Christiansburg’s Evan King Field.
Other than state championship games, this season is the first time since 2018 the Cavaliers had to go on the road for a playoff game. They hosted three games during the spring season and four in 2019, winning all seven in Daleville before falling in state championship games in Lynchburg and Williamsburg.
This season LB finished as the fifth seed in Region 3D with a 6-3 record, losing one game to COVID. That sent them to fourth seeded Hidden Valley last week, where they pounded the Titans into the turf in a 41-6 win at Bogle Field. That set up another bus trip this week to top-seeded Christiansburg.
“We’re road warriors,” said LB coach Jamie Harless. “We’ve had our jaws smacked around enough this year. The kids got to see things from the other side and it’s a different animal.”
Botetourt started the season 1-3 but since then the Cavaliers have won six straight games. While they’re the fifth seed, Christiansburg is the top seed at 10-1, losing only to Salem. The Blue Demons had impressive wins over Abingdon, Patrick Henry and Pulaski County along the way. Last week they opened the playoffs with a 48-0 shutout of Staunton River.
With that in mind, it’s hard to forget what happened in the spring playoffs. Just seven months ago these two met in the COVID delayed 2020 playoffs and Botetourt ran the Demons off the field in a 55-0 win. Has Christiansburg closed the gap in such a short time?
“They got away from the wing-t and became more power oriented,” said Harless. “They have a really good football team. They’re well coached and they have a lot of athletes.”
In the meantime, Botetourt has also cemented their identity. The Cavaliers want to run it down your throat with a big line and two horses in the backfield, quarterback Jakari Nicely and wing back KJ Bratton. That one-two punch knocked Hidden Valley out of the playoffs last Friday, leaving no doubt as to which was the better team in the “four-five” matchup.
“Our line was better in all phases of the game,” said Harless. “They were very young up front and we felt like we could get some pressure on their quarterback.”
The Titans lived by the pass all season, but quarterback Sam Dragovich was running for his life for much of the game last Friday. He still managed to complete 22 of 40 passes for 271 yards, but only one touchdown, a first quarter 30-yard strike to Braxton Dunnings.
Botetourt had zero yards passing on just three attempts, all incompletions, but a passing attack wasn’t necessary when you can gain 548 yards rushing. Nicely had 282 rushing yards on 23 carries, while Bratton had 226 on 10 attempts. Between the two of them that’s an average of 15.3 yards per attempt.
Botetourt is now one of four teams remaining in the region tournament, with third seeded Bassett (9-2) at second seeded Abingdon (10-1) in the other semifinal. Abingdon’s only loss was to Christiansburg, 32-27 back on September 3. If Botetourt wins this week the “road warriors” will play at the Bassett-Abingdon winner over Thanksgiving weekend.
“We’re a lot better football team than we were in September,” said Harless. “Failure is not a bad word. Wins and losses are meaningless, what’s important is what you learn from it.”
