For one reason or another the Lord Botetourt football team has played on Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday afternoon, Saturday night and Monday night in recent years, but last weekend was a first. The Cavaliers played at 11 a.m. in Dublin last Saturday and had no problem waking up with a 54-21 win over host Pulaski County.
The Cavaliers were scheduled to play on Friday night but a social media threat forced Pulaski County to close schools and postpone the football game. It was rescheduled for Saturday morning at Kenneth J. Dobson Stadium.
“I don’t know why they scheduled it for the morning,” said LB coach Jamie Harless, who conducted a walk-thru practice in Daleville Friday evening. “You know how hard it is to try and get kids up on a Saturday morning.”
Apparently the Cavaliers had no trouble waking up, as they scored three first quarter touchdowns to take control of the game. It didn’t take LB long to get on the board as Tristan Overbay found a big hole off the right side of the line and raced 72 yards for a touchdown just 51 seconds into the game. Dean Webb’s kick made it 7-0 just minutes after the Dublin McDonald’s stopped serving breakfast.
The Cougars answered in less than two minutes to tie the score at 7-7 on a one yard run, but from that point it was all Lord Botetourt. Quinten Jones picked off a pass and took it 50 yards to the house for a “pick six” with four minutes left in the quarter, then Garrett Lonker found Conner Dowdy behind the Cougar secondary for a 38-yard score with 44 seconds left in the quarter. The point after failed but LB led 20-7 after the first period.
Lonker found Dowdy again for a touchdown pass with 3:36 remaining until halftime. This one went for 66 yards and gave LB a 27-7 lead.
“They were keyed up to stop the run,” said Harless. “Conner has great vision, and when the defensive back got spun around he just got lost.”
On Pulaski’s first play after the kickoff, Seth Reiter recovered a fumble and the Cavs punched in another score on a seven-yard run by Jones with 50 seconds until halftime. The two-point conversion failed but LB had a commanding 33-7 lead at the half.
Pulaski cut the lead to 33-14 in third period but LB answered with Jones’ third TD of the game on a 14-yard run. Overbay then went over from 23 and it was 47-14 after three quarters.
With the game in hand the two teams traded fourth period scores. LB’s came on an 80-yard run for Overbay, as he scored his third touchdown of the game and amassed 241 rushing yard on 13 carries, an average of over 18 yards per attempt. Jones had 87 yards on 10 carries.
Lonker and Angel Rigney split time at quarterback and combined for seven completions for 182 yards. Dowdy had 110 of those yards on three receptions and Overbay had 62 yards on two catches, giving him 303 yards of total offense for the game.
“We’ve played two quarterbacks before many times,” said Harless. “It makes them (the opponent) have to prepare for both.”
With the win LB improved to 2-1 on the season and the Cavaliers are back home this Friday to host Appomattox. The Raiders won state championships in 2019 and the ’21 spring COVID seasons and have made the playoffs 11 straight years in Class 2. They’ve played LB twice with a 35-14 win over the Cavs in the fall of 2021 followed by a 35-3 Cavalier win in 2022. They did not play last year as the game at Appomattox was postponed by a bomb threat and LB was awarded a forfeit win when the Raiders could not agree on a makeup date and surrendered.
This season the Raiders have opened the season with three losses for the first time since 1995, falling to Buckingham County, Rustburg and Heritage. Last week at home they lost to Heritage, 48-0, and they’ve been outscored 138 to 33 in their three games.
“They run the triple option and they’re a difficult team to prepare for,” said Harless.
