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Albemarle’s defense put the Patriots in position to win. All the offense had to do was close the door.
On fourth and long, Albemarle’s J’Quan Anderson and Ethan Blundin shut the door, connecting on a 36 yard pass down the sideline that allowed the Patriots to force Charlottesville to burn timeouts and set up Jamal Thompson for a four-yard touchdown with 1:41 to play.
“(Blundin) was a little down because he threw the interception (while filling in for Anderson who was out for a stretch) and I told him it was alright, I put you in there because I know you can make the plays,” said Albemarle coach Brandon Isaiah. “This is the third game in the last four that he’s made a play to seal the game.”
Thompson’s score gave Albemarle a 22-14 lead that held up when the defense strung together a pair of sacks to close out any hope of a tying drive by CHS.
“Quietly they’ve been playing great ball,” “I’m just excited about these guys, watching them play defense like that. We put them in some bad situations and when we needed a stop they got a stop.”
Albemarle linebacker J.T. Shorten led an Albemarle defense that allowed two strong rushing offenses this week in eight quarters (including Monday’s game against Orange) to just 21 points. The Hornets scored the bulk of their points on a fumble recovery and a punt return. The Patriots’ are giving up just 16.2 points per outing, and did a solid job against a unique challenge in handling Charlottesville’s multi-threat, option-based attack.
“If we keep them between the tackles we felt like we could control them with the linebackers and the safeties come up and make plays,” Shorten said.
Dontae Woodfolk helped set the tone for that defense early on with a leaping interception in the first quarter that helped halt a threatening march by Charlottesville that started with a 36-yard bulldozing run by Sabias Folley.
“My coach just set me up in the right position to make plays,” Woodfolk said. “All I did was follow my keys and I just made the play.”
Despite that effort by Woodfolk and the rest of the Patriots’ defense, it was Charlottesville that drew first blood when Rakeem Davis hit Rashad Brock for a 40-yard touchdown. After the 2-point conversion, it was 8-0 Black Knights.
Just few minutes after Brock’s touchdown, Albemarle answered when Anderson wove his way into the endzone from 10 yards out and Blundin notched the two-point conversion to even the game up.
After a Rooney Turay touchdown from 29 yards out in the third quarter, the Patriots actually appeared ready to salt the game away when they forced what appeared to be a three and out. The stop came after a tremendous Lorenzo Louderback interception gave the Black Knights new life late in the third quarter, and Sean Scott took the punt back for a touchdown, but a roughing the punter penalty negated it and immediately became a 65-yard dash to the house on a midline option keeper by Charlottesville’s Davis. The two-point conversion failed and the Black Knights were down just 15-14 heading into the fourth quarter.
“A lot of that is just us growing as a team,” said Charlottesville coach Eric Sherry. “It’s a good group of kids, and it’s a lot of youth but that’s not an excuse because Albemarle made plays and we didn’t. Once we get over that hump and we learn to dial in and focus in…we’ve got to figure it out and we’ve got to be mature enough to handle it.”
Earlier in the week, Albemarle let Orange hang around in similar fashion and got burned, but Anderson’s toss to Blundin the helped sustain the last touchdown drive and a couple of defensive stops helped prevent a repeat performance.
“Our defense is very happy and we’re very happy about the way the offense played tonight, the way they were able to keep us off the field for a long period of time,” said Albemarle’s Nemo Lessesane. “Once they kept us off the field, we’re not tired and then we need to hustle and make plays.”
Turay’s performance on the ground was a big reason that the Patriots were able to keep their defense on the sidelines for long stretches as Turay finished with 106 yards on 21 carries including his 29-yard touchdown sprint. Thompson finished with 55 yards on five carries.
The Patriots hit the road to take on Fluvanna County next week while Charlottesville makes the long trip to Powhatan.
