Last Friday defending Class 1 champion Riverheads High of Staunton visited Daleville and ran their winning streak to 39 straight games with a 62-38 win over the Cavaliers. This week, LB will take on the defending Class 2 state champ when the Cavaliers travel to Appomattox. The Raiders had a 22-game winning streak end last weekend when they fell to Heritage at Lynchburg City Stadium, 56-13.
Appomattox has won five of the last six Class 2 state championships under coach Doug Smith. They’re new to the LB schedule so it should be an interesting matchup this Friday night.
“They’re fast and faster with speed all over the field,” said LB coach Jamie Harless. “Last week’s game (loss to Heritage) was fools’ gold. They had a ton of kids out.”
The Cavaliers will be trying to get back to .500 after falling to 1-2 with the loss to Riverheads. It’s unusual for a Class 1 school to take on a Class 3 team, especially one that’s been to three state championship games in recent years. However, Riverheads is no normal Class 1 program.
“They have kids who can play for anyone,” said Harless. “We made a couple costly mistakes, and you can’t make mistakes against a team like that. And their speed of execution was quicker than we could react.”
The Gladiators rolled up an unheard of 489 yards rushing against LB on 47 attempts while passing just seven times. Riverheads had 41 points in the first half but led by just nine at intermission as Botetourt put 32 on the board.
The teams traded touchdowns until halfway through the second period. Joey Isaacs scored on a 21-yard pass from KJ Bratton, and Bratton ran for a 47-yard score for LB in a 14-14 first period.
Riverheads regained the lead early in the second period on a 47-yard run by Luke Bryant, but LB answered with a 40-yard TD run by Jakari Nicely. Bryant scored again on a 27-yard run, only to have Isaacs return the kickoff 90 yards for a score. LB scored one more time before intermission on a 70-yard hookup from Nicely to Bratton, but that was sandwiched between two scores by Cayden Cook-Cash of Riverheads as the Gladiators took a 41-32 halftime lead.
Riverheads put it away with two more scores in the third quarter. The Cavs scored once more late in the game on a 42-yard reception by Cody McCauley but it was too little, too late.
As expected, there were plenty of stats. Bratton ran for 202 yards on 13 carries and added 73 receiving yards. Nicely had 76 yards rushing and 140 yards passing. Riverheads had three backs rush for over 100 yards, including 190 by Bryant. It was just the second time Botetourt gave up over 60 points since 2001. Staunton River put 75 on the board in 2016.
This week will be another challenge. Appomattox scored 474 points in the 10-game spring season, including 83 in a win over Nelson County.
“We’re going to have to be really disciplined this week,” said Harless. “I thought the kids played with a lot of effort last week, but we need to hold the ball and limit the other team’s possessions. It’s important that we possess the football.”
