Last week’s trip home was bittersweet for Lord Botetourt football coach Jamie Harless. His Cavalier football team saw the season come to end, but his alma mater won a region football championship for just the second time ever when host Abingdon beat LB, 28-14.
“Obviously, you never want to lose, but I was happy for them,” said Harless, who knew the families of many of the Abingdon players. The trip southwest brought back memories for the LB coach.
“It was almost 29 years to the day that I played in the regional finals against Richlands,” he said. “We lost 28-7 and they (Richlands) went on to beat Orange County in the final, and I had a cousin playing for Orange.
“I can remember being in gym class, and they had all the championship banners on the wall. There was only one regional championship for football, in 1979, and I remember thinking how bad I wanted to win another. That was a big deal for me back then.”
Little did young Jamie know that the next regional title for the Falcons would come against the team he was coaching. The Cavaliers would have the lead twice before Abingdon prevailed last Friday.
LB took a 7-0 lead on an 18-yard run by Jakari Nicely in the first quarter. Abingdon would answer with a touchdown in the second quarter and it was all tied up at 7-7 at the half.
Botetourt regained the lead on an 18-yard run by KJ Bratton in the third period, but then Haynes Carter of Abingdon put his stamp on the game. He caught a 52-yard touchdown pass to bring the Falcons to within one at 14-13 with seven and a half minutes left in the third quarter, but Botetourt blocked the extra point attempt to retain the lead.
The Falcons forced a punt four minutes later and that turned out to be the biggest play of the game. Carter slipped through the LB line and blocked the punt, then scooped it up and ran 27 yards for a touchdown to give Abingdon its first lead of the game. Carter also scored the two-point conversion on a pass play to give Abingdon a 21-14 lead.
“That was a big play,” said Harless. “That Carter boy is the son of a buddy of mine. It was weird coaching against kids I held in my arms as babies.”
Abingdon added a big insurance score in the fourth quarter while keeping LB off the scoreboard, improving its record to 12-1. The Falcons will play Liberty Christian in the state Class 3 semifinal at Liberty University in Lynchburg this Saturday.
“It was a disappointing loss, both teams played well,” said Harless. “We just made a few too many mistakes. A couple holding penalties really hurt us.”
Botetourt rolled up 273 rushing yards in the game, as Nicely ran for 141 on 20 carries and Bratton had 124 yards on 14 attempts. Nicely was one for three passing for 11 yards, with Joey Isaacs making the reception.
Nicely finished the season with 1,722 yards rushing for an average of 9.2 yards per attempt, while Bratton had 1,171 yards on 90 carries for a 13.0 average along with 361 yards receiving on 10 catches. Jakari had 22 touchdowns and Bratton had 11 rushing and four receiving in the two-headed attack. Nicely is just a sophomore but Bratton, a senior, saw his LB football career end in Abingdon.
“That’s a whole lot of football,” said Harless, who is just four wins away from 100 at LB. Unless something unforeseen happens in the future (see COVID) he should get that 100th win next fall.
“We lose 11 seniors, but we have some real good football players in that ninth and 10th grade group,” he said. “Our coaches do a good job of developing the kids and we could be a real good team next year.”
