It’s hard to say what happened, but something did. Because the Fluvanna County team that played the first 23 minutes of the game against Charlottesville did not resemble the Flyin’ Flucos that played the last 25 minutes. After falling into a two touchdown hole, the Flucos rallied together 33 unanswered points to pick up their second Jefferson District win, 33-22.
“We have been preaching and preaching this to our players — if you just go out there and do what we ask we can be successful,” said Fluvanna coach Rodney Redd. “So tonight, for us to tell them to just stick with it, and then for them to see the good results later in the game, I think that’s really good for them down the road. It’s a good feeling all around for both players and coaches.”
Until the final minute of the first half, everything was going the Black Knights’ way. On offense, Raymond Parker and Xavier Porter had each broken loose for long rushing touchdowns. Defensively, Chris Grant was a menace in the backfield. Charlottesville was up 14-0 and Fluvanna went three-and-out for it’s first four possessions.
But with a little over a minute, left the Flucos got it together, blocking a Charlottesville punt, and putting six points on the board after D.J. Burton hauled in a 10-yard pass from quarterback Ryan Foster to cut the lead to eight points.
Still, in the opening minutes of the third quarter, Charlottesville looked like they were still in control. Xavier Porter picked off a Foster pass and returned it 49 yards to the one-yardline. After failing to punch it on first and second down and picking up a false start penalty, the Knights watched Fluvanna take over the game.
“We have to learn how have a killer instinct,” said CHS coach Chris Fraser. “We need to be able to stick a fork in these teams. Now when something happens we don’t have the fortitude to come back and make the plays we need to. We just hang our heads.”
On third and goal Charlottesville went to the air and Fluvanna’s KaDarrius Bruce picked off Benj Wilhelm in the end zone on a pass intended for Alex Thurston.
“That was probably the biggest play that KaDarrius will ever make in his high school football career,” Redd said. “That was such a big turning point for us.”
The turnover instantly brought Fluvanna to life. From that point on Fluco running back T.J. Dudley almost single handedly marched his team down to the goalline where Foster was able to reach the end zone on a three yard run to cut the deficit to two points late in the third quarter.
Then early in the fourth quarter, Foster put his team on top by five points with a 75 yard scoring strike to a wideopen Cameron Coles.
“Cameron’s a fast dude,” Foster said. “He was able to get wide open and my line gave me the time I needed to make the pass.”
On the Flucos’ next possession, Foster was at it again, this time throwing a 28-yard touchdown pass to Coles after breaking out of two tackles and scrambling to his right.
“I wound up running the wrong route on that play actually,” Coles said. “But I saw that (Foster) was about to get sacked so I made an adjustment and came back to him on a curl route. You’ve got to keep hustling — you can’t stop until the whistle blows.”
Late in the fourth, Dudley finally put the game out of reach with a 38-yard run.
With two minutes left Charlottesville was able to cut the Fluvanna lead to 11 points, but it was too little too late.
“It was a very disappointing night,” Fraser said. “After that interception, things spiraled from that point on. We blew coverage, let them take the lead and simply couldn’t get it done. That’s been our story all year. We’re not finding ways to get the plays done.”
Parker and Thurston led the Charlottesville attack. Parker finished with 122 yards on 11 carries, including his 38-yard scoring run. Thurston had 108 yards receiving on seven receptions.
For Fluvanna, Foster all three of his completions were touchdowns. He passed for 113 yards while rushing for 80 more. Dudley led all running backs on the night with 152 yards on 14 carries.
