The Lord Botetourt football team will try and sweep the Williams this weekend when they host William Fleming on “Hall of Fame Night” this Friday. Game time is 7 p.m. in Daleville and the four new inductees to the Lord Botetourt Hall of Fame will be introduced at halftime.
LB comes in with a 2-3 record and ranked eighth in Region 3D in the first Virginia High School League rankings, which were released Monday. William Fleming is ranked 13th in 5D with a 1-5 mark, coming off a 34-33 loss to Northside in a shootout last Friday.
Botetourt was in Vinton last Friday to take on host William Byrd in what has become a fierce rivalry in the past few years, with Botetourt winning most of the time. This one was no exception, as the Cavaliers used some big plays to take a 26-12 win.
The game was scoreless until late in the second quarter when Byrd quarterback Israel Hairston hit his brother, Ethan, for a 44-yard TD. The extra point was missed but Byrd had a 6-0 lead with just 48 seconds remaining in the half.
Botetourt didn’t take a knee and head to the locker room to regroup. In fact, just the opposite as Jakari Nicely hit KJ Bratton in the left flat and Bratton outraced the defense to the end zone for a 66-yard TD. The extra point was blocked, but the momentum had swung.
“That was huge,” said LB coach Jamie Harless. “If you go into halftime sitting on a deficit you’re chewing on a bad taste, and it was a long halftime because it was their Homecoming. It’s a whole different feeling if you’re tied.”
Byrd hung in the game with a 25-yard TD pass to cut the lead to 18-12, as again the extra point was missed, but LB answered with just under three minutes remaining as Nicely scored the TD to ice it on a 10-yard run. Nicely ran in for the two-point conversion and the 26-12 final score.
Nicely finished with 119 yards rushing on 12 carries, and passed for 196 yards. Bratton had four receptions for 176 yards as the two Terriers accounted for just about all the offense.
Now 2-3, LB will try to keep the ball rolling this week against Fleming.
“They’re fast,” said Harless. “They have some good athletes and they run stuff to get them the ball in space.”
