The Lord Botetourt football team scored 27 second half points to blow open a close game and defeat Hidden Valley last Friday. The Cavaliers took a 33-13 win in the Region 3D semifinal in Daleville.
Botetourt led just 6-0 at the half. After a scoreless first quarter Hunter Rice scored the first of his four touchdowns but the extra point attempt was blocked and that was the only scoring of the half.
“They came out of the locker room and did some things we hadn’t seen on film,” said LB coach Jamie Harless. “Once we went in at halftime and got ‘em settled down we started doing things the right way.”
LB scored three touchdowns in the third quarter to open a 26-0 lead. Rice scored on a two yard run, James-Ryan Salvi found Kyle Arnholt on a 75 yard pass play for a score and then Rice broke free for a 62 yard TD run. Hunter also scored a two point conversion after Arnholt’s touchdown but LB failed on two other two-point conversion attempts in the period.
Hidden Valley didn’t go down easy. The Titans put two scores on the board in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 26-13, but LB put it away on Rice’s fourth score of the night, a four yard run, to account for the final score.
“Hidden Valley has a really good football team,” said Harless. “They have some talented players. That (tight end Kelly) Mitchell kid was as good as advertised.”
Hunter was also as good as advertised, as he carried the ball 35 times for 303 yards. That’s an average of about eight and a half yards per attempt. Botetourt had 350 rushing yards as a team while holding the Titans to just five yards on the ground. Hidden Valley had 251 passing yards, but most came in the second half with LB holding a big lead.
“I think they had about 35 total yards at the half,” said Harless. “Our defense played well.”
The win lifted LB to 12-0 on the season and set up a rematch with Northside in Daleville this week for the Region 3D championship.
