Louisa County quarterback Malik Bell summed up the Lions’ clock-grinding offensive mode.
“Basically? It’s devastating,” Bell said.
Bell, who accounted for four first half touchdowns, helped orchestrate a dominant second half by the Lions that included two grinding drives, the first a five-minute touchdown march to open the half and the second a backbreaking nearly eight-minute number. Both helped the Lions put away No. 1-seeded Dinwiddie 37-28 on the road Friday in the Class 4, Region B championship game.
Louisa (13-0) will host Region A champion Lafayette in the Class 4 state semifinals Saturday, the Lions’ first trip to the final four since the 2006 squad advanced there before finishing as the state runner-up.
The Lions played keep away from the Generals after the break, leading to a nearly 17-minute advantage in time of possession on the night. Louisa had the ball for almost a quarter and a half more than Dinwiddie did while rushing for 319 yards on 61 attempts. It was vintage Louisa, complete with the O-back formations of old where another running back is set up right behind a guard, sets that haven’t been as big a part of the mix this season as they have in the past. It would’ve been impressive to play that kind of ball control offense against any high school defense. To do it against a unit led by Ohio State-bound K’Vaughn Pope was nothing short of incredible.
“The thing you’ve got to really put into perspective with is how good their defense is,” said Louisa coach Mark Fischer. “With those linebackers and those defensive linemen and ends, for us to be able to hold on to the ball is just a tribute to all 11 of the boys on the field. That was just huge for us.”
Bell led the grinding attack with 176 yards on 29 touches while Job Whalen fought tooth and nail for all of his 97 yards on 19 carries. The Lions’ physicality up front on the offensive line and on the run by Bell and Whalen was a difference-maker as possible one-yard losses turned into three-yard gains and some three-yard gains turned into five or seven or 13 yards in key situations.
“That’s Louisa football man,” Whalen said. “We try to hold the ball as long as possible and do what we do best.”
Bell scored twice on the ground and threw two more touchdowns in the first half, hitting Matt West for a 45-yard scoring catch early in the second quarter before connecting with Raquan Jones for a six-yard touchdown with just 21 seconds left in the first half. Bell’s two rushing touchdowns,a 61-yarder and a 7-yard run early in the first quarter staked the Lions to a 14-0 lead out of the gate. Louisa linebacker Brandon Smith played a big role in making that happen when he flew to the outside after Bell’s 61-yard sprint and forced a fumble by punching the ball out on an attempted slip screen by the Generals. Louisa came out of the scrum with the ball and after an efficient march, Bell scored from seven yards out.
“We knew we couldn’t give Dinwiddie the (momentum) first, we had to come out fast and set the tone,” Whalen said.
Dinwiddie refused to go quietly, ripping off two touchdowns of their own, both passes from K’ymon Pope to Jasiah Williams, one for 49 yards and the other for 50 and by the end of the first it was 14-14. Pope, the younger brother of standout linebacker K’Vaughn Pope, finished with 256 yards and three touchdowns on 18-for-26 passing.
“Give credit to little Pope, he’s an athlete,” Whalen said. “He’s all over the place…we knew we were coming into a battle today.”
Pope’s ability to extend plays with his legs and then find someone open down field made things tough on the Lions’ secondary.
“I’m a defensive back so I had to stay on my dude no matter how long he was scrambling around until I knew for sure he was down or the ball was gone,” Bell said. “(Some plays) felt like seven or eight seconds but we condition hard, we’ve got to be prepared for that.”
Louisa finished the half strong though, building a 31-21 lead with help from a defensive stop near the end of the second quarter that allowed for a two-minute drill and the touchdown from Bell to Jones that gave the Lions a big lift heading into the locker room.
Then came the opening drive of the second half, a 13-play drive that took more than five minutes and increased the Louisa lead to 37-21. But the tour de force was the 19-play monster that all but ended the game as Louisa took nearly eight minutes off the clock before turning the ball over on downs at the three, forcing Dinwiddie to try and go 97 yards with 1:21 to play down by nine points.
“You get to a point where you go, okay, one let’s eat the clock and keep their offense off the field as much as possible and Will (Patrick, the offensive coordinator) planned it out real well,” Fischer said. “He knew we had to go and get the big ones and then he made up his mind when it was time to grind it out and churn the clock.”
Basically? It was devastating for Dinwiddie. And now the Lions will get another chance to extend their season, only this time it’ll come in the state final four.
Louisa’s Tony Thurston talks about the Lions’ region championship win in First Off the Field presented by @PT_acac pic.twitter.com/dlvTNxdWru
— scrimmageplay (@scrimmageplay) November 25, 2017
