Fluvanna County caught a pair of bounces and did something with both of them. Unfortunately for the Flucos, the two fumble recoveries for touchdowns were sandwiched between four touchdowns and a field goal from Charlottesville. The Black Knights shook off their early struggles and thanks to solid defense and a strong night from Malik Bartee, Charlottesville was able to keep it’s playoff hopes alive with a 27-13 victory.
“The big thing here was we only gave up three offensive first downs,” said Black Knights coach Eric Sherry. “We’re playing really good defense right now. That can translate to something when you play defense properly.”
After Charlottesville opened up the game with a successful onside kick, Alec Turley reversed the course and got the Flucos off to a good start when he picked up a fumble and returned it 35 yards to make it 7-0.
“That was a good start for us and I was proud of the way our defense played tonight,” said Fluvanna coach Jason Barnett. “We had some bad things happen to us, we put them in bad situations so for the defense to have two touchdowns was huge.”
However, Charlottesville answered with a 27 unanswered points to spoil the good feelings early for the Flucos.
On the next Black Knights drive, Bartee hit DeAndre Bryant for an 11-yard touchdown. Four minutes later Bartee found the endzone on the ground off a 16-yard run to make it 12-7 and give Charlottesville the lead for good.
“We were able to run our jet sweeps successfully today,” Bartee said. “It was more of a perimeter game where we tried to run the ball to the side of the field with the most open space.”
Things stalled offensively on both sides from there until the final few minutes of the second quarter. First Bartee capped a flag-plagued drive with a 2-yard run to make it 18-7. Bartee then came just one tackle away from a 60-yard touchdown run with time expired, but at the three yard line Fluvanna’s Macen Dahl was knock him out of bounds.
Midway through the third Thomas Birle hit a 17-yard field goal for CHS to make it 21-7. Just 80 seconds later Bartee picked up his third rushing touchdown of the game, this time from 17 yards out.
Fluvanna made things interesting late in the fourth when Markyll Bland came up with an 80-yard fumble return for a touchdown. But with 2:33 left, Charlottesville was able recover the ensuing onsides kick and keep the Flucos at bay.
“It was simple, if everyone shows up at practice and works hard we play well,” said Black Knights linebacker Larry Anderson. “That’s what we did this week. If we keep doing that it’ll be that simple every game.”
Fluvanna (1-8) hosts Western Albemarle (7-2) in its season finale.
Charlottesville (4-5) travels to Powhatan (8-1) looking to qualify for the Region 4A playoffs.
