Botetourt earned a spot in the championship game by defeating Christiansburg, 28-27, in the regional semifinal last Friday. Meanwhile, Abingdon was beating Bassett, 42-34, in the other semifinal at Abingdon’s Falcon Stadium. The Falcons are the highest remaining seed in the regional so they get to host the game Friday at 7 p.m. Abingdon is the second seed in the regional tournament, while LB is the fifth seed, having knocked off fourth-seeded Hidden Valley and top-seeded Christiansburg in the first two playoff games.
Harless is a graduate of Abingdon High, where he was a football standout. This will be the third time the two teams have met in the playoffs in the past four years, but the first time the game is in Abingdon. In 2018, LB beat the Falcons 63-27 at William Byrd’s Patterson Stadium and in the COVID-delayed spring season LB won 26-8 in Daleville on April 16 of this year.
Expect a lot of Harless’ friends and relatives to be attending the game this Friday. In fact, they’d probably be there anyway because football is a big deal in Abingdon.
“In Southwest Virginia, we’re all family,” said Harless with a chuckle. “Most everyone in Abingdon is related some way or another.”
The Falcons come in at 11-1 and, ironically, their only loss was to Christiansburg. The Blue Demons won in Abingdon the second week of the season, on September 3, 32-27. Since then they’ve ripped off 10 wins in a row and the only other common opponent they have with LB is Northside, who Abingdon beat 28-14 to open the playoffs. Botetourt beat the Vikings 36-15 in October.
Harless looks at the Falcons on tape and sees a team very similar to the Christiansburg bunch he played last week.
“Almost a carbon copy,” he said. “They pretty much do the same things. Christiansburg has more size.”
The Cavaliers’ season has somewhat mirrored Abingdon. After a slow start LB has now won seven games in a row for an 8-3 overall record. Last week’s win over Christiansburg wasn’t their finest showing of the season, but it was a win. They overcame some adversity, including a long bus ride necessitated by an accident on Interstate 81 that caused the game to start an hour late.
“Adverse circumstances would sum it up perfectly,” said Harless. “We had the two-hour bus ride, we dropped three interceptions, KJ (Bratton) slipped on the turf on what would have been a sure touchdown and Gunner (Givens) didn’t play with a sore knee. We felt very lucky to beat a good Christiansburg football team after all that.”
The game went down to the wire. It was 14-14 at the half as the teams traded touchdowns. Christiansburg scored first on a one yard run but Botetourt answered on an 18-yard run by KJ Bratton. The Demons regained the lead on a 43-yard run but the Cavaliers tied it on a 30-yard TD pass from Jakari Nicely to Joey Isaacs just before intermission.
Isaacs continued his heroics as the second half began, returning the kickoff 88 yards for a touchdown to give LB a 21-14 lead. That was his fourth kickoff return for a touchdown this season.
The Blue Demons tied it back up with a 15-yard pass play and it was knotted for a fourth time after three quarters. LB then regained the lead on a one yard run by Jakari Nicely to take the 28-21 lead.
Christiansburg rallied back late in the game to score on a seven-yard run with two and a half minutes left on the clock. Seizing momentum, they decided to go for two and attempt to take the lead. LB jumped off sides and now the ball was just a yard and a half away. However, the LB line, led by Hunter McLain, stopped the attempt just short of the line and LB hung on to the one point lead at 28-27.
Everyone knew the Demons were going to onsides kick, but that didn’t stop them from recovering the ball. LB coach Harless debated the legality of the formation but it fell on deaf ears and the Demons still had over two minutes to score a field goal or touchdown to win the game.
On second down, Christiansburg ran a halfback pass that fooled the LB secondary, completing a 43-yard play to the five-yard line. However, on the next play a pitch out was fumbled and Isaacs recovered, his third takeaway of the game to go with two interceptions.
“It was a toss sweep and it went off his back hip,” said Harless, who then watched the Cavaliers run out the clock for the big win.
Last year, Botetourt beat the Demons 55-0 in the playoffs in Daleville. Christiansburg was able to take 54 off that difference this year, but it was one point short.
“They have basically the same team they had last year, while we had to replace 18 starting positions from last year’s team,” said Harless.
Nicely finished with 119 yards on 27 carries and Bratton had 86 on 10. Nicely had his best game passing, completing all five attempts. Bratton had three receptions for 20 yards and Isaacs had two for 41.
With a few breaks the Cavaliers “survived and advanced” to the regional championship for the fifth year in a row and the sixth time in the past seven years. If LB wins Friday night the Cavaliers will be headed to the state final four for the fourth season in a row. They’ve yet to win the whole ball of wax, and if they do so this year they’ll have to do it without a single home game. Friday is their third straight regional game on the road and the winner will go to Brookville or Liberty University next week to meet the winner of the Brookville-LCA game in the state semifinal, as it’s Region C’s turn to host that game.
Then, on December 11, the championship game is back at Liberty University this season after a one year hiatus due to COVID, as spring championship games were played at home sites.
“We can play a lot better than we did Friday night, but we won the game,” said Harless of the Christiansburg win. “We’re glad to be playing again this week.”
