The difference in the contest came down to a failed 2-point convert, and from Charlottesville’s perspective, it was an incompletion away from a comeback win over Louisa County. Of course the other side of that coin is that the Lions found a way to gut out a win defensively. That latter side of the coin is fact. An interception from Louisa’s Deion Johnson negated what would have been a go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Two first downs from the Lions on Markel Groomes’ legs wound up preserving 14-13 win. For Louisa, grinding out a win one week after coming up just a week short means an awful lot going forward.
“What I love about this team is that they grind it out,” said Lions coach Jon Meeks. “Tonight, (Charlottesville’s Leon Straus) caught a touchdown pass on Deion and that happens rarely. He’s a great corner and so the next time they throw at him he gets the game winning pick. So what I love about this group is the resiliency, the not pouting.”
Louisa claimed a 14-0 lead in the first half with the Black Knights running just nine offensive plays thanks to two muffed punts and a kickoff that allowed the Lions to simply burn off the clock. Long drives were the theme for the Lions up until the fourth quarter and a pair of quarterback keepers at the 1-yard line from Tre Cherry gave the visitors a commanding lead.
“The first half was completely self inflicted wounds again, turnovers and penalties,” said Charlottesville coach Eric Sherry. “The second half I thought we really battled our rear ends off and I couldn’t be prouder of that effort.”
The game looked like it was headed for blowout territory in the third quarter after a long Leon Straus run to set up Charlottesville at the Louisa 12 yard line was negated by a fumble on the next play. A seven minute drive ensued to put the Lions in the redzone again, but the Black Knights gave a breath of fresh air when Malik Ragland came up with an interception to end the threat of playing in a three possession game.
Charlottesville finally got on the board late in the third quarter thanks to a 17-yard touchdown run from Chris Thurston who had a big second half. Trailing 14-7, Thurston, now playing at quarterback led a Black Knights drive into the redzone and hit Straus for an 11-yard passing touchdown, and on a play that would come back into the picture in the fourth quarter. The Black Knights attempted to go for two to claim the lead but a dropped pass kept them trailing 14-13.
The Black Knights tried to take the lead midway through the fourth on a 38-yard field goal, but the low-angle kick was knocked down by the Lions to keep the 1-point lead. With Just over four minutes to go, Charlottesville got into the redzone again but in a play that looked almost identical to the Thurston-Straus touchdown play from the third, Johnson was able to come up with an interception at the 1-yard line.
“He caught that touchdown on me earlier,” Johnson said. “He was talking and I couldn’t say a thing because I didn’t catch it. But I knew that I was going to bounce back. I was getting that interception (the next time). I knew they were going to throw at me and once I turned and saw the route I knew that I had to catch it, couldn’t swat it down or drop it. It was a catch that we needed.”
From there the Lions moved the chains three times to burn off four minutes of clock the Black Knights’ timeouts.
“I feel like we came back, battled as hard as we could but come up just one play short,” Sherry said. “We knew they would come prepared to play. We met that that in the second half.”
On the night for Louisa Groomes led all rushers with 128 yards on 29 attempts. Cherry added 42 yards on 15 carries.
For Charlottesville, Thurston had 71 yards and two total TDs. Straus had 73 yards beweeten his touchdown catch and 64 yards rushing.
Louisa (2-2, 1-0 Jefferson District) host Powhatan on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Charlottesville (2-2), 0-1) travels to face unbeaten Monticello, also on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
