Given what both teams put together offensively, a cruel ending was inevitable. If you’re Western Albemarle, the heartbreaking part was that Sam Hearn might have played the best game ever in program history at quarterback and the Warriors season ended on a redzone interception. But if you where there, or if you ask anyone that was, they will come away saying that as great of a fight as the Western offense put up, you simply have to tip your cap to what Staunton River did with their single wing offense. They were perfect.
“They played well, we played well, it just was a matter of getting one stop,” said Golden Eagles coach Chuck Poston.
There were 164 points in this contest, the most ever scored between two VHSL schools in a history that stretches back more than 100 years. And that Western trailed by three touchdowns in the fourth quarter made it all the more entertaining. While the top seeded Warriors weren’t able to mount a comeback in the Region 3A West semifinals, their game with Golden Eagles was nothing short of a 15-round prize fight and Staunton River had one last haymaker left in them to win 85-79.
“It was unbelievable effort,” Poston said. “Our kids were exhausted and their kids were exhausted. All those tough games that we played (earlier) showed tonight because we just found a way, that’s all I can say.”
In a game that featured 23 touchdowns, a safety, and three turnovers, it was the last one that hurt the most as Western somehow came back from down 56-35 to make it 63-58 in the last minute of the third quarter. The 16-0 run, engineered by Hearn’s work at quarterback, and one of the two big plays Western’s defense came up with on the night set up the fourth quarter to be even crazier than the third.
“It’s completely beyond anything I’ve ever seen, that many points, that many kids making plays,” said Western coach Ed Redmond. “It seems like on both sides nobody wanted to lose. The offenses were certainly in control. No question about it. I thought their offense was phenomenal and that ours was equal.”
It was a back-and-forth all night, but never so even than in the fourth with the Golden Eagles trying to keep their one possession lead. It was 71-65 and 77-72. Even at 85-72, when Hearn hit Kreienbaum for a 10-yard TD to cut the deficit to six points, the Warriors had hope. After a failed onside side, Western’s Darren Klein came up with an interception to give his team hope. And Western got into the redzone with less than 20 seconds to play. And on fourth down, Staunton Rivers picked off a pass in the endzone to deliver the dagger.
The Golden Eagles had one of the best rushing games in VHSL playoff history, between TJ Tester and Grayson Overstreet who had 273 and 236 yards respectively. Tester had three touchdowns while Overstreet had 5. Divers three in 102 yards and three TDs. The rushing total at the end of the day? It was an absurd 611 yards on just 43 carries, that’s 14.2 yards per attempt as the Warriors could not solve the Eagles rushes to the edge of the field.
“Our line made the holes and we just came out running, hit it and run,” Overstreet said. “We knew that they could score just as much as we could though and that it was going to take a defensive stop to win this game.”
On the other side, Western saw Hearn go 33-for-51 passing with 569 yards and five touchdowns while adding 20 carries for 96 yards and four rushing touchdowns. Derek Domecq led the receivers with 15 catches, 263 yards and three TDs. Oliver Herndon had 16 carries for 38 yards and three touchdowns to go with his four catches and 88 yards and a touchdown. Henry Kreienbaum had three catches for 85 yards and touchdown.
“It is what it is,” Redmond said. “We had kids scratching and clawing and we faced adversity all year. Tonight was another game with adversity with some guys going down to injury. Guys stepped up, but we just never had an answer for their attack.”
The Golden Eagles won the turnover battle 2-1, with Noah Dellis coming up with both interceptions — a pick six late in the first half, and of course the game clinching interception in the endzone. Staunton River also caught a bounce when Western attempted an onside kick and appeared to come up with it, but after considerable deliberation, officials overruled the initial call and said the ball did not hit a Golden Eagles player and since the ball did not travel 10 yards, it was an ineligible kick.
This was Redmond’s first senior class, a group he coached to four straight playoff appearances. Western finished the year at 10-2 after winning the Jefferson District outright, and year after making it to the Group 3A final four. In all four years, the Warriors have a 42-11 record over that stretch, including four straight years with a playoff win.
“This is a group of young men that have established our program and left a legacy at our school and our community,” Redmond said. “This a group of young men that I saw grow up in my first year here when they were freshmen. They just kept on getting better and developing and turned into some quality men.”
