Headlines

Buckingham falls to Gretna in OT

GRETNA — The last remaining unbeaten football team in the Central Virginia, Buckingham County entered Saturday’s Region A Division 2 semifinal as a significant underdog. They did not play that way though, as the Knights scrapped and crawled their way into overtime against a talented Gretna team. But in the end there was no Cinderella story to be had for Buckingham, as after the Hawks’ defense forced a turnover in the first half of the game’s only overtime, it gave the ball to its offense which was able to score the contest’s final points and earn a 28-22 victory.

“I was proud of this bunch,” said Knights coach Craig Gill. “You know a lot of people may have folded, but we’ve got such good character and the boys have worked so hard I knew they weren’t going to quit.”

After holding the two-time defending Group A Division 2 champions to zero points in the first 23 minutes of the game, Buckingham quickly found themselves in a 14-point hole on the road against Grenta. But behind some clutch play from its seniors , the Knights stormed back to tie the game and force overtime.

“We weren’t even picked to win our league this year,” Gill said. “These guys worked so hard this past spring and summer and the seniors I’ve got they’re a great group and kept us focused all year long and kept the young guys encouraged. We just had a great team effort and just came up a little short.”

The Knights came out in the first quarter and drew first blood when Alvin Davis picked up a mis-thrown lateral pass from Hawks quarterback Nick Miller and took it 54-yards for the score. With the team scrambling to find the tee for the extra point, Buckingham wound up going for a two point convert and was successful. From there it was a defensive struggle until the final minutes of the second quarter when Gretna was able to orchestrate a lengthy drive and cap it with a 1-yard quarterback keeper from Miller to make it a two point game.

“We wanted to run the ball and keep it away from them before they could get that offense of theirs rolling,” Gill said. “We didn’t want to get into a scoring contest with them.”

That’s what Buckingham did in the first half, but in the second half, things changed. The Hawks offense got rolling and reeled off a pair of touchdowns after Buckingham muffed a punt. Entering the fourth quarter Gretna looked in control with a 14 point lead, but Buckingham went to their spread offense and moved the ball down the field until Ja’Rodd Wade cut the deficit to eight points with 11 minutes to play.

After the defense forced a three-and-out, Jackson Bryant blocked a Grenta punt to give the Knights a short field to work with. Then on a wide receiver pass play,  Taylor Boyers hit William Ross for a 36-yard strike and Wade was able to run in a 2-point convert to tie the game with 3:26 to play.

In overtime, Buckingham struggled to move the ball on first and third down and wound up drawing a five yard penalty to push themselves even further back before eventually throwing an interception.

Gretna scored the game winning points on third and goal when Miller hit Ted Jennings on a 15-yard pass.

“I thought if we could get them throwing the ball we’d be a lot better off,” said Gretna coach Kevin Saunders. “I feel pretty good about us on defense.”

Though Gretna’s offense made it’s share of mistakes particularly in the first half, their defense returned the favor and then some as they forced three redzone turnovers to counter two Hawk’s interceptions and costly fumble.

While Boyers biggest play may have come on his pass to Ross late in the fourth, his play at linebacker drove the Hawks up the wall all game and he was big factor in keeping running back Andre Dickerson to just 65 yards on 20 attempts.

“Buckingham had a good game plan,” Saunders said. “It was just one of those things where you have a team that blitzes a lot, and that (Taylor Boyers) is as good a linebacker as there is in the state of Virginia and he makes problems. We had to account for him and that left us a man short on the offensive line.”

Buckingham finishes its year tied for the school’s record for wins with 10, doubling their total from last year. This was the Knights’ first playoff appearance since 2002.

Comments

comments