# F or k U n i on S trong
Almuni Profiles: Mike Fafaul Mike Fafaul came to Fork Union in the fall of 2011 from Loyola Blakefield high school with a lot of collegiate interest. He left Fork Union with an opportunity to play for UCLA. In 2011, Fafaul, a 6-foot-1 quarterback, led the Blue Devils to an 8-1 record as he threw 14 touchdowns. His work with renowned coach John Shuman led to an opporunity to play for the Bruins, a chance he pounced on. And then Fafaul waited patiently for his time to play. Redshirted his freshman year, he saw his first game action in 2013 when he went 4-for-4 with 47 yards. As a sophomore, he was also 4-for-4 with 47 yards in three games. And while he only got to play in one game in 2015, his senior year is a different story. Fafaul has played in seven games for the Bruins this year and is 68-for-122 passing with 779 yards and eight touchdowns. In his second career start, he broke a pair of school records, completing 40 passes and throwing 70 times in a 464-yard 5-TD effort against Utah. The former Blue Devil has bided his time as a backup quarterback now in a starting role. And the Bruins coaching staff has shown an awful lot of confidence in their newest signal caller to whip the ball around. Good things come to those who wait and work hard. Fafaul is a perfect example of an athlete waiting for his chance and making the most of it when it comes. It’s never a simple journey from high school to playing FCS football, particularly for quarterbacks. Fafaul has navigated it well.
Fork Union Military Academy is the leading Christian military boarding school for boys in grades 7 - 12 and PG. www.forkunion.com — 1-800-GO-2-FUMA
07 FINISHING STRONG
IN LATEST ERA OF WESTERN HOCKEY
scrımmageplay THE CENTRAL VIRGINIA SPORTS AUTHORITY
x’s and o’s
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MORE THAN A RIVALRY A look at Orange and Louisa’s annual clash
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THE AFTERWORD Western field hockey hits home stretch
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GAME TIME Albemarle football tops Powhatan
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THINKING OUTWARD CHS and WAHS reach out
The Battle
VOL 8 . ISSUE 4 :: OCTOBER 27, 2016
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IT STARTS UP FRONT Fork Union senior captains embrace rebuild
VOL 8. ISSUE 4 :: OCTOBER 27, 2016
Looking inside the rivalry between Orange County and Louisa County football PAGE 07
S TA F F Bart Isley, Creative Director Bob Isley, Infrastructure Director Ryan Yemen, Creative Editor O N T H E COV E R The Gordonsville Tastee Freez M I S S I O N S TAT E M E N T Local sports are the lifeblood of every community in America, and we’re here to reach beyond the basics and give compelling accounts about Central Virginia athletes to our readers. CO N TAC T U S [ e ] info@scrimmageplay.com [ p ] 434-249-2032
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PREGAME
Road warrior
Albemarle coach Brandon Isaiah asked for running back Jamal Thompson to step up and lead the way on the field for the Patriots on the road against Powhatan. Thompson got the message and delivered as the senior had 223 yards rushing and three touchdowns in a crucial 35-28 win. The hard fought victory put the Patriots at 6-2 and in position to secure a potential home playoff game come November 11 when the Region 5A North playoffs begin. ✖ (Photo by Ryan Yemen)
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It’s not often that two of the area’s top three rushers wind up splitting the same backfield, but that’s the case at Louisa County. In their win over Monticello the Lions saw Job Whalen (below) and Malik Bell both surpass the 1,000 yard rushing marks. Whalen is second in the area with 1,143 yards on 164 carries with 14 touchdowns. Bell is third with 1,034 yards on 145 touches and 10 touchdowns. Louisa has a huge test with Orange this week. To read about that rivalry turn to page 07. ✖ (Photo by Ashley Thornton)
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PREGAME
Two for 2K
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First Quarter It starts up front
Fork Union grows under trio of senior linemen captains By Ryan Yemen
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Fork Union’s Brandon Garrison, center is one of three senior captains on the line. (Ryan Yemen)
{ FINAL ROUNDS } Yardage leaders for the Blue Devils
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RUSH I N G
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STANK E R KJ.AR A EL DE K AR A EL DER
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PA S S I N G
hen you’re dealing with as many new variables as first year Fork Union coach Mike Hooper was at the start of the season, the most important thing was making sure the team was in position to make progress.
So when it came to naming captains, he went with three senior linemen — Aaron Pace, Brandon Garrison and Zach Pace. It was a clear message, one that emphasized that the Blue Devils would need their veteran linemen to answer the call in order for this program to move forward. Fork Union sits at 2-6, but it’s a bit of a misnomer as they’ve been more than competitive in all but two of those losses. And a 28-14 win over Paul VI followed by a tight battle with a highly-ranked St. Christopher’s squad followed by an upset win over Liberty Christian, 31-24, proves the point that this team is infinitely better than the one that took the field in its first scrimmage with Orange County. “No question about it, there’s a very big difference,” Aaron Pace said. “We’ve come together as a team and are now finding our potential. Yes, we’ve had some ups and downs, but we’re getting better each week and it’s that coming together as a team that’s big.” That’s hard to do when you’re cycling in so many new students as is the case every year at Fork Union. The best Blue Devils squads recently, whether the 2010 VISAA Division 1 championship team or the 2012 state runner up squad, thrived behind not just their talent, but the way it blended together. Running backs and quarterbacks usually try and throw a shout out to their linemen in postgame interviews. With Hooper naming three of them captains, he all but guaranteed that the skill position players understand each and every week where their bread gets buttered. So while the Blue Devils had to endure a
brutal schedule up front, this trio of captains tried to make sure that those around them understood that there’s room for improvement even when you’re short-handed or the roster is thin early on. “Even when you’re short on numbers, you can grow from it and learn from it,” Garrison said. And that’s what the Blue Devils have done. Quarterbacks Luke WIlson and Hayden Miles, both juniors, have made strong improvements. That’s helped get a talent like Logan Justice, who everyone knew about coming into this year, become more of a factor as the season’s chugged along. And then there’s Iosefa Pua’auli. The sophomore running back has 84 touches on the year for 672 yards and seven touchdowns. With strong line play up front, his work in wins against Paul VI, LCA and his absurd stat line of 321 yards on just 21 carries against St. Chris has helped Fork Union show that the future is bright. For Pace, Pace and Garrison, getting the opportunity to captain as seniors for Hooper in this first transitional year is a great honor. “I’m proud to be a part of this because Coach Hooper is such a great man,” Zach Pace said. “He treats us with respect, never puts us down and always coaches us up.” That’s a solid first step in this new era at Fork Union. And when the Blue Devils take the next one these three captains can take pride in the way they helped to jump start things in 2016. ✖
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College Update
We’ve gone digital
CHS alum Davis continues to impress for the Dukes on the gridiron
But you can have it in print too!
By Ryan Yemen When James Madison University took a flyer out on a football player at Charlottesville who’d really only excelled as a senior, it was taking a gamble. Sure, Rashard Davis had the metrics speed wise to compete in college. But there was still no telling what kind of player he’d be at the next level and how a move from being a mobile quarterback in high school to a slot receiver in college would go. Nearly four years later, the results are a testament to just how far hard work will take you, that it’s not always about experience. Davis is now a senior at JMU and after working his way up the ladder and getting significant playing time as a junior in 2015, he’s making a solid impact for the Dukes in his final year of eligibility. Davis started 11 games last year and had 39 catches for 592 yards and six touchdowns. He also rushed for 48 yards on eight attempts. He set a career high against William and Mary when he had 125 yards on just four catches.
This year, he was named the Colonial Athletic Conference Special Teams Player of the Week in September. A week after he had a 76-yard punt return for a touchdown against Morehead State, he had another punt return that went 75 yards for the score against Central Connecticut State. He had a season high with five catches for 57 yards on October 15 against New Hampshire and has 174 yards on 16 catches in addition to his role as a special teams game changer. The Dukes sit at 6-1 and have won four straight contests to put themselves at the driver’s seat of the CAA championship race with a huge meeting with Richmond on November 5 looming large. For a special talent to play just one year of high school football, Davis has not only taken advantage of his scholarship opportunity to acquire a valuable degree, he’s shown he was well worth the risk in the first place. Stories like his don’t happen often, but when they do, it’s awfully interesting. ✖
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BELOW » Former Charlottesville quarterback Rashard Davis is wrapping up a productive career as a receiver and special teams standout at JMU. (James Madison University Sports Information)
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Y R L A V I R A N A H T E R O M Y STOR
N EME Y N YA BY R
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ON ORNT H T HLEY S A , KS LBAN I W CE GRA Y B TOS - PHO
N YEME N A & RY
S E I T I UN
M M O C R A L I M I S O W T S E with a respect K A T for one another to make IT
something like the annual meeting between
the Orange County and Louisa County football teams each season such a spectacle, such an event. It’s a game that has more hype around it than any other in Central Virginia. It’s unique in that respect. And so much of that is the makeup of the two respective counties. They share a bond that makes them perfect rivals. “I think it’s because we’re the only two really rural schools in this district,” said Louisa County coach Mark Fischer. “We both come from a similar makeup. When either of us travels, when you’re playing the teams that are closer to the city in Charlottesville, you don’t get the same feel. When we meet up with Orange there’s this feeling — these guys are a lot like us. We’re cut from the same cloth. There’s a bit of a lunch pail vibe.” The counties are stacked on top of each other and if you boil it down, this game connects a pair of communities whose deepest roots are connected to farming and construction. This is the ‘salt of the earth’ game within the Jefferson District for two counties that pride themselves on their football teams first and foremost. It’s a rivalry that connects some families, but also creates the fun that kind of divides in others. Orange County coach Jesse Lohr comes from the latter. He grew up a Hornet and has brought the program back to the standard it once enjoyed before the once proud football standard endured a tough stretch when Orange was sent off to the Commonwealth District. Lohr spent years an assistant as the offensive coordinator under then coach John Kayajanian. In 2011, he had the pleasure of trying to design a scheme against one of his younger cousins, former Louisa County standout lineman Tommy Payne. “The demographics, the proximity, it all comes together and we have a name for it — the Battle of the Gordonsville Tastee Freez,” Lohr said. “Gordonsville is that area that both counties utilize, share and cross paths in. We both have family that live there and so that makes us intertwine. One of my first cousins went to Louisa and so when Tommy Payne was starting on the line for them I was coaching against him. That made those Thanksgiving dinners interesting and it’s things like that that add to it all.”
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“It was this battle between gladiators. They pounded the ball and we were a little more flashy on offense, throwing the ball around a lot. - Bradley Starks
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That dividing line, the restaurant sitting on the corner of Route 15 and Route 33 became famous as the rivalry’s calling card in the mid-2000’s when these programs were at their best. Many point to the 2005 game that featured Lions stud running back Rontray Houchens (Class of 2006), Hornets star quarterback Bradley Starks (Class of 2007) and defensive tackle Asa Chapman (Class of 2006) as the pinnacle of this rivalry — a 49-40 win for the Hornets that was a back-and-forth affair. “It had this build up with two of the best teams in the Jefferson at the time clashing late in the season,” Starks said. “They had Rontray and we had big Asa playing in the middle, getting to watch that alone was amazing. It was this battle between gladiators. They pounded the ball and we were a little more flashy on offense, throwing the ball around a lot. So between the two teams you got a great mix (of styles) all in one game.” Orange finished 8-2 that year. Louisa, at 9-2. And the following season in 2006, the Lions exacted revenge and put together their best campaign ever, a 13-1 run that ended with a Group AA Division 4 runner up finish. It’s been 10 years since those glory days and a lot has happened since. Both teams have undergone various peaks and valleys. The Hornets had a pair of strong years under Starks’ successor at quarterback with Quintin Hunter, but could not get past Monticello as the Jefferson District’s frontrunner had just one playoff appearance from 2007 to 2014, a 7-4 campaign that ended with a first-round playoff loss in 2010. The next four years were beyond challenging to put it bluntly. For a team that was always on the right side of the standings, the two years spent in the Commonwealth District forced Orange to build from scratch. Keita Malloy took the reigns for two seasons and while a very young core of talent got better, the results weren’t showing in the win column. Things changed in the summer of 2015. When Lohr took command in 2015, there was a different vibe in training camp and the following scrimmages. As a hometown coach, one who played for Orange and was an assistant for such a long time, he tapped into the community vibe that he felt was missing. Bringing in Starks, who had finished up his playing career after graduating from West Virginia, to the coaching staff helped add to that. Between the mental and the physical maturation of the not-so-young anymore core of talent, the Hornets found a bit of their swagger quickly. Running backs DeAngelo Hunt and Trevon Smith became household names thanks to their highlights during a 3-1 start. It was a breakout season team-wide. Orange made the playoffs for the first time in five years. It was a huge step forward for program that was eager to take it, however, one loss hurt a little more than the others in the regular season. The Hornets suffered their seventh straight loss to the Lions, a 27-14 game that spoiled homecoming in Orange. “I’ve told my kids, for this to be a rivalry though both teams have to beat up on each other,” Lohr said. “Louisa has owned this series these last handful of years, so for us to make this
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that kind of rivalry again we have to start winning some of these games.” This is a senior-laden team whether it’s defensive leaders like Ryan Horton at linebacker, Jay Lewis-Nixon at cornerback, Cameron Rickett and Alize Johnson on the line, Smith, Hunt and others. That made a 2-3 start to the season tough, but unsurprisingly, not one that they couldn’t shake off. Now coming in with a 5-3 mark and three straight wins over Western Albemarle, Monticello and then Charlottesville, the Hornets are hitting their stride at just the right time and would love to beat a team that’s simply had their number the last seven years. “In a game like this it really just comes down to both offensively and defensively, who wins the line of scrimmage,” Lohr said. “We line up in more of a pro style offense and they line up in more a single wing and spread look. But at the end of the day, these are both teams trying to execute a power running concept. Whoever’s way prevails, that’s going to decide the flow of the game come Friday.” The Lions have undergone an interesting makeover themselves. After the magical run in 2006, Louisa put together a perfect regular season in 2010 as running back Anthony Hunter (Class of 2011) had a fantastic year as did the defense, led by linebackers Brandon Ornduff and Chris Colvin. Louisa fell in the second round of the Region II playoffs to Broad Run and Fischer moved on to coach in South Carolina for three seasons. In 2011, the rivalry drew a lot of attention as it was scheduled at the front of the season with Orange having to move out of the
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“At the end of the day, these are two teams trying to execute a power running concept. Whoever’s way prevails, that’s going to decide the flow of the game come friday” - Jessie lohr district. As it happened, the Lions and Hornets played just days after the earthquake in Mineral that wound up condemning Louisa’s high school as building. Senior Andre Mealy, a bruising running back and linebacker who missed almost all of 2010 because on an elbow injury, led an inspired performance against the Hornets and helped the team improve to a 7-4 record that ended with a Region II playoff loss to Powhatan after a first-round win over Sherando in overtime. Then the Lions fell into a bit of a funk with 4-6 and 3-7 records in 2012 and 2013. In 2014 Fischer returned from South Carolina to take back over the program that he built from the ground up. A 7-4 mark
that year followed up by a 6-5 record in 2015 set the table for the Lions this year. Behind a mean defensive front featuring Quinton Ragland and Tony Thurston and a power running game led by quarterback Malik Bell,and running backs Job Whalen and Rashawn Jones, Louisa raced out to a 6-0 start. But with injuries mounting after a loaded slate of physical and talented opponents, a loss to Western Albemarle and then a narrow defeat of Monticello have the Lions in an interesting position for a 7-1 team. Louisa is looking to find what it had going into its meeting with unbeaten Powhatan four weeks ago. “We’ve been handing out a few too many band aids these last few weeks and we’re at a point where we have to start playing better,” Fischer said. “We’re going to have to a play an A-plus game if we have any intentions of winning this game. These guys are big and so we have our work cut out for us. Really all you’re trying to do is hang in there, keep it close and see if you can win it at the end. I don’t think there’s going to be a whole lot of flash in this game and that’s kind of cool that both teams are built a lot alike and it’s time to line up and just play smash-mouth slobber-knocking football.” Both teams are poised to make the playoffs, the Hornets in Region 5A North and the Lions in Region 4A East. A win for either squad would round out their resumes substantially. That this game has fallen in week nine of the season during this scheduling cycle only helps to add to the excitement. With the game set in the Jungle this year, the Lions’ will only add to the pageantry that surrounds the rivalry by welcoming back members of the 2006 squad at halftime. On top of that, the game ball will brought in by a skydiver. There will be plenty of pyrotechnics from start to to finish and of course the standard fire breathing Lion in the end zone. “That’s what you love about this game is that there’s a little bit of everything in it,” Fischer said. “There’s some love, some hate and it’s got this country feel to it where all the guys are just out there to get after it, you know?” And with both teams coming in with plenty to play for Orange versus Louisa isn’t just going to be a great rivalry football game — it has the potential to be a game that these players talk about for years and years long after they graduate. That’s what rivalry football is supposed to be. “Most of our coaches who are Orange County guys, growing up you played everyone from Louisa in everything — football, basketball, baseball, summer leagues, legion baseball or AAU, whatever the sport — it just always seems to be there, it’s Orange and Louisa, Orange and Louisa,” Lohr said. So here it is again. Orange and Louisa. ✖
“There’s some love, some hate and its got this country feel to it where all the guys are just out there to get after it, you know?” - Mark Fischer
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The Afterword
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Story and Photos by Bart Isley
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estern Albemarle’s core of five seniors that have been in the program since they played junior varsity as eighth graders is exactly what any coach is looking for and any team could use to be successful. They’re dedicated, committed and talented. They’ve weathered the challenging early years as they grew up and became the state tournament contenders they are now.
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“We had a good season last year and made it to states and that’s our goals this year. We’re just as as motivated to end this on a good note.” - Masloff
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Whether it’s Joie Funk at forward or Valerie Hajek, Madison Masloff and Shelby Flynn in the midfield or Hannah Weyher on the back line, they’ve all started or played extensively for several years now for the Warriors. They’re among the best in the area at their respective positions and it has been that way for some time. In short? They’re the standard-bearers for an actual era. “It’s the end of an era that they’ve been at the tail end of but that they’ve been a really important part of,” said Western coach Milo Oakland. That era has been kind to the Warriors. Two years ago, with Oakland in his first year at the helm and this year’s seniors just getting started as sophomores, a virtually senior-less Western made drastic improvements as the year progressed and nearly upended a Kendall Ballard-led Charlottesville team in a 1-0 loss in the conference semis. A year later, the Warriors powered their way into the Group 3A tournament where they ran into a juggernaut in James Monroe in the state final four. This season they’re getting primed for another run, this time the last for that senior core and the seven other classmates they’ve picked up along the way. “We had a good season last year and made it to states and that’s our goal this year,” Masloff said. “We’re just as motivated to end this on a good note.” If they’re able to pull it off, it’ll be because they’ve got a diverse skill set baked into that core and a team that knows how to meet the challenge when they’re called on to step up. Weyher, in particular, had to take on an expanded role this season due to the graduation of a couple of key players for the Warriors. During the preseason, Oakland came to Weyher and let her know that she was going to have to move into the middle and become the Warriors’ defensive stopper. “I was nervous because I’ve always been the younger girl on defense, I’ve always had people to look up to as role models,” Weyher said. Now she is the role model, though she does have some familiarity with the players next to her. Junior Audrey Russell and senior Dorothy Park weren’t simple new additions on defense, they’d been in a lot of battles. “I’ve known Audrey and Dorothy, they’ve been on the team for two or three years and I’ve bonded with them so much that it makes it fun,” Weyher said. That back line has been particularly stingy, giving up just a handful of goals during Jefferson District play. That makes things easier on Masloff, who plays a critical firstline-of-defense role in the center midfield. “It definitely takes a lot of pressure off of me, I know that if the ball gets past me they’re there to back me up,” Masloff said. “It’s definitely helpful.” Weyher has also become a critical part of the Warriors’ short corner sets, blasting the injection passes off the end line in those set pieces. Against Powhatan, in fact,
ACADEMIC EDGE
S P O N S O R E D
B Y
H A R G R AV E
M I L I TA R Y
A C A D E M Y
ALBEMARLE’S BROCK SHORTEN
Brock Shorten brings a certain level of intensity to Albemarle High’s football team. He hits hard, he runs hard and he plays hard. “I try to bring physicality to every practice, every game, every scrimmage, everything,” Shorten said during the preseason. That approach has helped the junior running back/strong safety to become a valuable contributor on both sides of the ball for the Patriots. Shorten, who also wrestles and plays lacrosse for Albemarle, brings a similar intensity his off-the-field pursuits in the classroom. He sports a 4.67 weighted GPA and a is a member of theYoung Republicans as well as a life scout in Boy Scouts who’s currently pursuing his Eagle Scout. “Brock embodies all of the qualities that represent an AHS student athlete,” said Albemarle coach Brandon Isaiah. “He’s smart, tough and a high quality player and person.” It’s clear that Shorten is developing exactly the kind of life skills one needs to succeed and big things clearly lie ahead as he’s only a little more than halfway done with tenure in high school.
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“She has great stick skills and she’s really athletic and quick. It’s been really nice to see her defend so nicely and lock down that right side for us.” - Oakland
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she scored the game winner to push the Warriors past the Indians in overtime. “Without players like that I think it’s hard to be successful,” Oakland said. “You have to have players who can do multiple things, that’s the nature of field hockey.” Masloff is a similarly multi-talented entity. She’s a significant threat on offense and also serves as a onewoman check on any potential run or possession by the opposition, often shutting down counter attacks before they start. She’s capable of doing that in large part because she’s absurdly athletic. “It was clear she was one of, if not the, most athletic high school players I’ve seen,” Oakland said. “It’s unbelievable. She is so multi-faceted in her athleticism, she’s got hand-eye coordination, speed, strength and size. She would be good at any sport she chose and that was apparent from the start. I was just grateful she chose field hockey.” Flynn has proven to be a steady hand for Western too, a constant presence in the midfield with a knack for making stops on defense. “She has been solid for three years,” Oakland said. “She has great stick skills and she’s really athletic and quick. It’s been really nice to see her defend so nicely and lock down that right side for us.” Hajek, the reigning district player of the year, is the Warriors’ most well-known entity, and she’s continued to serve as a key finisher and creator this year. She’s also gotten help from Funk, who can easily make opposing defenses pay for trying to lock in on Hajek. She and Kira Repich are both dangerous finishers, with Funk serving as an offensive threat for several years now. Western’s offense can come from a lot of different spots, especially since defenses have to concentrate on Hajek so much or she’ll do too much damage like she did in Western’s conference semifinal win against Culpeper, notching a hat trick to help the Warriors lock up a region tournament berth. She also has a now innate connection with Masloff in particular, which is easy to see from Flynn’s spot in the midfield. “Seeing them from the outside, they do a really great job,” Flynn said. “I think their close relationship through field hockey and outside of it really helps that. They’ve really got this kind of unspoken communication on the field.” That’s led to a lot of wins in a lot of hockey games over the years. But winning games is only a part of what the Warriors get out of this senior class. The bond they’ve formed is clear both in how they communicate and how they play. They’ve gone out of their way to create a unique environment, the kind of atmosphere where old hands and new additions can both thrive. “I think that comes from bonding on and off the field,”
Flynn said. “We’re always a close-knit team, there’s no barrier between grades, I don’t feel like there’s any exclusiveness and cattiness and that’s a big thing when you get girls from different friend groups. We are very welcoming to each other.” It helps that that core group of five has become friends over the last few years. “It’s really interesting to see how you can grow and form friendships,” Weyher said. “We weren’t all friends in eighth grade. I’m really thankful for making those friendships.” It helps that they all have a shared, team-first mindset, a commonality that helps bring the Warriors together when often individual agendas break up other teams. The Warriors want to be good, and they want to be good together. “We all love field hockey and we’re all going to be competitive and we know not to take anything personally,” Weyher said. “We all will back each other up. I’ll be there for someone and she’ll be there for me.” That’s enough to power a team there. Relying on one another to get the job done. That’s one hallmark of a great team, when not everyone is trying to do it all by themselves. It’s the kind of thing that allows a group of players to transcend a team and become more than that. To become friends, to form an unbreakable bond. That’s a principled approach that doesn’t just fuel a team. It can fuel an era. ✖
“It’s really interesting to see how you can grow and form friendships. We weren’t all friends in eighth grade.” - Weyher
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Game Time
Albemarle 35, Powhatan 28 By Ryan Yemen
Albemarle’s Jamal Thompson’s had three touchdowns in a win over Powhatan. (Ryan Yemen)
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Coming in on paper it had all the makings of a prize fight. It played out like one too, with one haymaker after another. There was never more than a one possession lead between Albemarle and Powhatan. In the end, the Patriots’ defense was able to come up with one more fourth quarter stop than the Indians could. And so on a night where the running backs — Powhatan’s Justin DeLeon and Albemarle’s Jamal Thompson — were the dueling stars of the show, it was the Patriots defense late in the fourth quarter and the quarterback play from J’Quan Anderson inbetwen that was the difference in a 35-28 road win. “We’re better up front this year than we were last year and sometimes I think we take for granted the progress we’re making because of that,” said Albemarle coach Brandon Isaiah. “(Powhatan) coach Jim Woodson always has a physical group, has his team coached up and we knew that coming in and challenged our guys all week in practice. We had to be able to run the football like we did to win this game.” When Powhatan tied the game up at 21-21 after a Jacob Oglesby 33-yard touchdown pass to Jonathan Arnold and subsequent 2-point convert, what was already a great game got even more intense. On the ensuing kickoff, the Patriots saw senior Tyquan Rose leave the game with a concussion. After a delay, on the next play from scrimmage, Thompson had his best run of the night, a 63-yard dash up the middle to give his team a 28-21 lead. “There was a lot happening there at that moment,” Thompson said. “(Tyquan) is my brother and I’ve been playing with him since growing up. I did that for him, he’d do the same for me and we’ll always play like that. The last (quarter) we knew what we’re playing for.” Oddly enough, Powhatan responded in some-what similar fashion. The game came to another halt when Albemarle’s Connor
Berner was injured at the bottom of the pile on the ensuing kickoff. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital and later cleared after the game. However, the Indians came out of the break strong with DeLeon nearly scoring on an 80-yard run and Ross Lewis following up with a 4-yard TD run with 9:39 left to tie things up at 28-28. What ensued was a taxing drive from AHS with Thompson and Anderson moving the chains. The Patriots chewed up five minutes and an 8-yard bootleg run from Anderson gave the visitors a 35-28 edge with 4:59. Albemarle’s defense answered the call by forcing a punt with just under three minutes to go. Anderson and Thompson were able to burn through Powhatan’s three timeouts when they converted on one first down. And two more first downs finished off the clock and the game. “We’ve been practicing on blocking all week, looking forward to this game all week,” Anderson said. “Once we got here we were ready. We weren’t nervous. We went down 7-0, we’ve been there before, been down by more before. It wasn’t anything new, our coaches told us to stick together and we did. We finished this game out together for Tyquan and Connor. They’re are brothers and when they went down we played harder.” The Patriots took a 14-7 lead in the first half but actually trailed 7-0 with DeLeon capping a game opening drive. Albemarle answered with a 42-yard run from Thompson to tie things up in the middle of the first. Then the Patriots took the lead early in the second quarter when Anderson unleashed an impressive 11-yard run that shook off a pair of Powhatan defenders. The Indians missed a field goal from 21-yards out late in the second but the Powhatan defense came up with a stop backed up in the redzone to keep Albemarle from going up by two possessions into the break. ✖
TEAM SPOTLIGHT WILLIAM MONROE HIGH SCHOOL It was a school wide event, so you can’t pick out any one one team — kudos to William Monroe High for its recognition of National Bully Prevention month on October 19. In an effort to raise awareness for the issue, the Dragons held a “Unity Day” where students wore orange t-shirts. Great job, Monroe students. Keep up the outstanding work! 495 Brookway Drive, Charlottesville, VA, 22901 434-296-9821 www.taylorautobody.com
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Overtime
Thinking outward Charlottesville and Western students show heart
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hen I was younger, my age group got kind of a bad rap. I feel like we were the first group that took the “participation-trophy,” “video-games-instead-ofoutside” criticism from people older than us. I think at this point I’ve been lumped in with the Oregon Trail section of millennials, the oldest part of that generation that people older than us are pretty quick to dismiss. First off, let’s be clear here. There are entitled jerks in every generation. Whole, wide swaths of people who don’t care about anything but themselves. Also, dismissing younger groups as not having it as hard as you did or not “getting it” is certainly an American tradition, and probably a world one. If you think John Adams and Thomas Jefferson didn’t once look at a bunch of dudes in their 20s and think “they don’t understand hard work like we did,” you’re nuts. Sure, things change over time. In football alone, we’re seeing a major change in how the game is practiced and played. But I’ve seen a couple of reasons just in the last month that make me think that high school students today are figuring some things out that we probably should’ve. That they’re bringing an openness and inclusion to the table that’s pretty impressive. At Charlottesville High, the student body recently elected Naia Fairchild as the school’s homecoming queen. While these elections usually aren’t particularly significant, this one is, because Fairchild is pretty famous in her own right, a senior at CHS who has Down Syndrome and who has been a speaker at the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress years after her family was featured in a six-part series in the Boston Globe called “Choosing Naia: A Family’s Journey.” We’ve also seen schools elect a wide swath of students as homecoming kings or queens before too, but not quite like this. This wasn’t some massive, organized effort to make it happen. According to Francis MacCall, the school’s elected homecoming king, independent of one another, students across the school made the decision that Fairchild was the one for the honor. “It wasn’t an organized effort, she herself tries to be everyone’s friend, she knows everyone’s name,” MacCall said. “The guy who was standing in front of me at the game when we were getting ready to walk on the field, when they were announcing all the things she does he said, ‘she’s going places.’ Everyone sees that and I think that resonated with everyone individually. We didn’t have to come together, the way she is and what she does proved she deserved to be homecoming queen.” That’s pretty incredible for an age group that gets tagged as narcissistic . A group that only cares about who likes what on snapchat? Or who wants to bully each other with text messages? That doesn’t match up with what the world seems to think of millennials. Charlottesville’s student body weighed the things that are arguably much more important when it comes to electing the person who’ll represent your school-- the content of that person’s character. And they chose a top-notch, gracious queen in Fairchild. “It was very exciting to me, it was just an honor to do that,” Fairchild said. “I’m really happy I’ve made a lot of new friends here the past few years here at (CHS).” Out at Western, the student body has rallied this fall around a special needs student Kenny Gibson, who was diagnosed with lung cancer shortly after he graduated from Western Albemarle last spring. At a pep rally at Western prior to the Warriors’ clash with Louisa County, Gibson made a surprise appearance. The game was dedicated to him and members of the school community helped organize a video message and autographed photo from his favorite football player, Peyton Manning. In a time that’s particularly tough for Gibson, his school com-
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“‘She’s going places.’ Everyone sees that and I think that resonated with everyone individually.” munity was there for him, because they knew what it would mean to him. Trying to tag an entire nation of young people with certain characteristics is a lost cause. Younger people today are being labeled as entitled and self-obsessed and social media is usually pointed at as the culprit, much like video games were when I was younger. But I’m not sure that’s the case. Gibson and Fairchild are just two examples. In Central Virginia, there are examples everywhere of students pitching in for the greater good or for a cause that’s bigger than them. Or just treating each other with the kind of respect they should, like when Goochland’s football team consoled Buckingham after three of their players suffered injuries on a single play. In those examples in particular, if a society is truly judged by how it treats the most vulnerable among us, then the students at Charlottesville and Western are building a compassionate, caring society that I’m proud to be a part of and, frankly happy to have my own children Bart Isley, grow up in. ✖ CRE ATIVE DIRECTOR
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Where have you seen students considering the greater good? bart@scrimmageplay.com
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