The Lord Botetourt football team bounced back from its first loss of the season with a convincing win last Friday. The Cavaliers beat Greenbrier East of West Virginia, 48-7, in Daleville.

It was a big night for the home fans. It was Homecoming for Lord Botetourt High and the King and Queen were crowned at halftime. That followed the introduction of the new LB Athletic Hall of Fame class.

The most important event of the night was the football game, and the Cavaliers gave the fans plenty to shout about in that regard as well.

“They had a pretty solid football team but we played well,” said LB coach Jamie Harless. “We had five starters out but we were still able to do what we needed to do.”

Botetourt led 34-0 at the half and didn’t allow a touchdown until the fourth quarter when the subs were in. Evan Eller and Hunter Rice scored first period touchdowns on runs of two and seven yards. In the second quarter Dawayne Harris had a TD run followed by two more scores for Rice on runs of 12 and eight yards.

Dylan Maclachlan opened the second half by running the kickoff back 75 yards for a touchdown and the clock ran continuously from that point. Rice scored his fourth TD on a three-yard run before taking the rest of the night off.

Rice, a freshman, finished with 216 yards on 27 carries. Eller, filling in for injured quarterback Preston Martin, had 83 yards on seven attempts and Harris had 34 yards. Eller threw the ball just once and it was incomplete.

Botetourt is now 6-1 heading into the bye week and ranked second in the Virginia High School League Region 3D rankings. The Cavaliers led the rankings until they lost to Staunton River on September 30, and at that point the Golden Eagles passed LB. Staunton River is 6-0.

The Cavs are a lock for the playoffs, but they’d like to get that top spot to assure themselves of a home game if they play Staunton River again. William Byrd could have a say in that, as the Terriers play both LB and Staunton River in the last three weeks of the season. Byrd is 6-0.

The Cavaliers have a big skin in their basket with a win over Blacksburg, who is 6-1 and second ranked in Group 4D. The Bruins are worth more points than anyone on Staunton River’s schedule.

“The way I see it, if we win out we’ll pass Staunton River regardless of what they do,” said Harless.