It didn’t go as originally designed, but when Charlottesville stepped to the line on fourth at three at the Powhatan 43 yard line, it got the play that defined the night. Had it gone the other way, the Indians, trailing by six at the time but with all the momentum in their favor after a safety and a touchdown, just might have completed an impressive comeback. Of course that’s not what happened.
What did happen was senior quarterback Chris Thurston checked out of a running play and into a post-pass pattern for a deep throw to receiver Leon Staus. It put Powhatan to rest for the remainder of the game and with the much needed win, Charlottesville guaranteed a second straight trip to the post season with a 28-16 victory in its regular season and home finale.
“The thing with Powhatan is that they are not going to beat themselves, you’re going to have to force the issue the whole way through because they’re so well coached (by Jim Woodson) and talented,” said Black Knights coach Eric Sherry. “We showed that we could compete early and our kids started believing early and that was the biggest thing.”
Before the Indians made things interesting between the second and third quarters, Charlottesville got off to one of its best starts of the year, something that’s doomed this squad in its losses. It was hard to ask for anything better than a 14-0 rush out of the gates. After the Black Knights defense forced a 3-and-out on Powhatan’s opening drive, Thurston and company marched down field and drew first blood on a 12-yard pass from the quarterback to sophomore running back Rashard Brock. On the next CHS drive, Brock struck with a 23-yard run to make it 14-0.
Powhatan answered shortly there after with Linwood Jackson carrying the load after his brilliant performance last week at Western Albemarle, and with fellow running back Logan Allen not at 100 percent after getting dinged up in that same contest. Jackson made it a one possession game on an 11-yard rushing TD. It stayed that way until the break although Powhatan did drive down into the redzone late but saw a pass intended for the endzone picked off by CHS defensive back Nick Epps.
“Basically, the guys came out and played some smart football and some hard football,” Thurston said. “They knew what they had to do. They knew how we needed to get off this field and make it to the playoffs.”
The Black Knights got back their two-possesion lead midway through the third quarter, with Thurston breaking off a 54-yard scoring run, but from that point on is where the game got interesting. With the Powhatan defense pinning Charlottesville deep in its own end late in the third on third down, Thurston slipped while dropping back to unload a bomb to a wide open Straus, but his knee touched the ground at the one and the play was blown dead. On the ensuing punt, another slip with a knee hitting the ground resulted in a safety for the Indians and making it 21-9.
Powhatan put the strong field position off the free kick to good use. Behind Jackson and Allen, they slowly worked their way into the redzone, this time coming away with the touchdown they needed, a 9-yard run from Jackson to open up the fourth quarter and make it a 5-point game.
That set up the big drive for CHS. On Brock’s back, the Black Knights got to midfield as he carried a pile of defenders along the way, something he did on multiple occasions on the night. Facing fourth and three, it was here that Thurston make the gutsy call to opt out of the original play call for what eventually was a 43-yard TD pass to Straus.
“Coach decided on running (a jet to the right) but (Powhatan), they decided to bring everybody to within five yards of the line,” Thurston said. “Don’t do that that when I have a Leon. So in my mind I had to check it. I knew Leon was going to catch it. I knew coach was going to be mad at me but I said ‘Check, check, check,” and Leon already knew what it was.”
For Sherry and his staff on the sidelines, it was a moment of panic followed by relief.
“I saw him drop back to pass and that wasn’t the play and I’m like ‘Oh my heavens!’”, Sherry said. “But you know what, he has a lot of trust in his line and he’s got Leon out there and Leon’s a pretty good darn athlete. It matched up zone, and he made a good call, did a good job.”
With just over two minutes to go, Powhatan once again drove deep into CHS territory, but an Isaiah Green interception and lengthy return allowed the Black Knights to take over and run out the clock. The Black Knights defense came up with two key turnovers on the Knights. Also Larry Anderson made a crucial stop on fourth and one with Powhatan in the redzone in the third quarter while it was still a 7-point game.
Thurston and Brock combined for just under 300 yards with the senior finishing up with 154 rushing yards and three total TDs while the sophomore had 136 on the ground.
“I felt good, this was great,” Brock said. “I was really hoping to get this win for my brothers, my teammates.”
The Black Knights move on to the 4A West Region playoffs, where they await their opponent. It’s the second straight time in his three years that Sherry’s led CHS to the post season, something he thinks shouldn’t be all that big of deal in the future.
“Recent history shows that Charlottesville hasn’t done that well,” Sherry said. “But I was talking with (former longtime CHS coach, Gawain Deberry) about this today that if you look at the long term history, this school’s always done well. It was just the past 10-11 years. Now this is our second time in a row getting to the postseason and that’s a big deal. But we’ve got a good young core of players that believe and so the future is bright.”
