Photo by Morgan Wilson
The Virginia High School League Region 2C playoffs will begin this week and James River is the sixth seed. The Knights will open against third seeded Floyd County in Floyd Friday at 7 p.m.
The Knights will be trying to win their first playoff game in school history. James River High has made the playoffs 10 times since the school’s first football season in 1959 and they’ve lost in the first round all 10 times. The most recent appearance was in 2023 when they lost to Radford, 63-0, and the Bobcats went on to win the state championship. The closest game among the 10 playoff losses was in 2021 when they lost to Martinsville in Buchanan, 16-13.
John Baker, father of first year Knights’ coach Jack Baker, coached the Knights into the playoffs in 1972 when it was much harder to make it. That team lost to Chilhowie at a neutral site, Alumni Memorial Stadium in Lexington.
Jack is hoping to not only be the first Baker but the first James River football coach to win a playoff game with the Knights this Friday when the team plays at Floyd. The two are familiar opponents as they both play in the Three Rivers District and met on the gridiron in Springwood on Oct. 24. Floyd was 6-1 at the time but the Knights gave them all they could handle before falling, 28-21.
Photos by Jim & Regina Devinney
Floyd jumped to a 21-0 lead in that game before the Knights came firing back. River cut the lead to 21-13 after three quarters as Gavin Binns finished off drives with touchdown runs of one and 15 yards, with the extra point kick failing on the second TD. Binns scored his third touchdown on a seven-yard run with 9:11 to go in the game and River tied the score at 21-21 when quarterback Merit Hammons found Landon Dillow in the end zone for a two-point conversion.
That’s how the score stood heading into the final two minutes, but talented Floyd quarterback Sam Phillips ran one in from a yard out with 1:21 left and the kick was good as Floyd went up 28-21. River fired back again, moving into the red zone with time running out before the Buffaloes picked off a pass in the shadow of their own goal posts to kill the threat with 10 seconds remaining.
“We played them well, that was a heck of a high school football game,” said River coach Baker.
The rematch is in Floyd, but Baker doesn’t see that as a detriment.
“The football field is the same, 100 yards,” he said.
As for preparing for a team that River has already played, Baker doesn’t see it as an advantage to either team.
“It depends on how you look at it,” he said. “There’s only so many new things you can do.”
The Buffaloes finished the regular season with a 7-3 record and they’ve lost their last two games, falling 44-21 to Radford and 24-6 to Glenvar last week. River is 5-5 after ending the regular season with a 35-25 loss at Carroll County last Friday. Carroll is a Class 3 school and the fourth seed in Region 3D.
“We had a hard time getting started, but we made it interesting in the second half,” said Baker.
Carroll led 28-0 with three minutes remaining in the first half before the Knights got some life. Merit Hammons passed to Bentley Painter for an eight-yard TD with just 10 seconds until intermission and Knox Taylor’s kick made it 28-7 at the break.
The third quarter belonged to River. Gavin Binns scored on a 55-yard run but the extra point attempt failed and it was 28-13. Then, on the ensuing possession, Josiah Merchant recovered a Cavalier fumble and returned it 37 yards for a score. The two-point conversion try failed but the Knights were back in the game at 28-19.
River cut the lead to 28-25 early in the fourth quarter on a 22-yard run by Binns. Again, the two-point conversion failed and the three missed extra point attempts proved to be big. Carroll then made it a two-possession game with a touchdown with 3:40 remaining and sealed the win. The Cavaliers ate up over eight minutes of clock time on the scoring drive.
“We needed to get a stop on their last drive, but we weren’t able to do so,” said Baker.
Binns finished with 119 yards rushing on 16 attempts. Hammons completed nine of 19 passes for 90 yards, including three to Dillow for 50 yards, three to Painter for 27 yards and two to Ryder Ward for 12 yards.
On defense, Jack Beheler had a game high 16 tackles for the Knights. Binns and Briar Sink had 13 each and Jayden Alston, Eli Baldwin and Ryan Daniels had eight each. Alston and Beheler had sacks and Daniels had an interception.
River is relatively healthy heading into the playoffs this week. Other first round games find top seeded Glenvar hosting Baker’s former team, Nelson County, while second seeded Gretna hosts Dan River, and fourth seeded Radford is home to Appomattox.
