Another successful Lord Botetourt football season came to a disappointing end last Friday in Daleville. The Cavaliers dropped a double-overtime, 46-44, game to visiting William Byrd in the Region 3D championship game.
“Sometimes you lose to a better team, sometimes you get out-coached and sometimes you’re just unlucky,” said Botetourt coach Jamie Harless. “This time we were just unlucky.”
Botetourt led for much of the game. The Cavaliers led 20-10 at the half and 28-10 early in the third quarter but Byrd scored 21 unanswered points to take the lead before LB kicker Dean Webb’s 25-yard field goal sent the game into overtime.
The Cavaliers lost three key players during the game. Key lineman Taygen Sanchez-Huerta broke his ankle, two-way starter Cody McConnaughey went out with a knee injury and just before the half senior lineman Gavin Walker was ejected for allegedly throwing a punch. Harless disputed that ejection.
“That was a very questionable ejection,” he said. “They said Gavin threw a punch and when you look at the film you can see he was just trying to punch the ball out. That was a very disappointing call in a game of that magnitude.
“Gavin Walker is the best football player in the region, hands down. If he doesn’t get ejected we win that game by two or three scores.”
Instead, the game went down to the wire with the huge crowd on the edge of their seats. Webb’s field goal with eight seconds in regulation tied the game at 31-31 and LB went first in overtime, with Angel Rigney scoring on a three-yard run. Webb kicked the point but Byrd matched it on a six-yard TD pass and Conner Whitehead’s extra point.
Now 38-38, Byrd went first in the second overtime and Gray Matthews ran it in from the 10. Byrd went for two and quarterback Cannin Lutz ran it in for a 46-38 lead.
Photos by Suzanne Witcher
On Botetourt’s possession, Rigney found Seth Reiter open in the end zone for a 10-yard TD. LB had to go for two to send it to a third OT, but the pass was incomplete and Byrd celebrated wildly before busing back to Vinton to prepare for a trip to Liberty Christian Academy this Saturday.
Tristan Overbay had an outstanding game in his last time in an LB football uniform, rushing for 213 yards on 25 carries with three touchdowns. Quinten Jones had 84 yards rushing and Rigney had 66 and both scored TDs.
With the loss, Botetourt finished the season at 9-4. They’ll lose 15 seniors from a program that is 36-13 in their four years with three trips to the region championship game.
“It was a good season because of the kids,” said Harless. “This was one of the funnest groups I’ve been around.”
