DILLWYN — It was business as usual for Buckingham County in its home opener Friday night. The Knights executed their offense to a T and let their defense do the rest in a non-district victory over Nelson County.Buckingham was effective on the ground and in the air as Maurice Taylor ran for a pair of touchdowns and Tarian Ayers threw for two scores en route to the 27-13 win in front of a large home crowd.
“We knew it was going to be a big physical game and they were going to line it up and run it right at us. And we knew to win we had to stop that and do the same to them,” said Taylor, who eclipsed the 100-yard mark for the second straight week. “It’s the last time we’re going to play them for a while — they’re leaving our schedule — and the main thing we wanted to do was to end it on a good note.”
The Knights (2-0) started on a good note as well. Last year’s James River District champions broke to a quick lead as Ayers connected with L.A. Briley for a 43-yard play on the team’s opening possession. The visitors answered with a touchdown from Rodrell Smith (5-yard run) to cut the lead to 7-6.
Buckingham used two second-quarter TDs to extend its lead and build momentum by halftime. Taylor rumbled in the end zone from one yard out and after taking over on downs on their following possession, the Knights needed just three plays to score again. Ayers found Briley for another long scoring strike to give the home team a sizable 20-6 lead at the break.
“That’s two big rivalry games in a row. Our non-district schedule really helps us because it’s tough on us, but it gets us ready for the season,” Buckingham coach Craig Gill said. “It’s always a tough ballgame with them no matter where we play. We knew they had a good football team and they were real physical — they were going to run the ball at us. And they did. I was proud of our defense for making some adjustments.”
Buckingham’s defense tightened in the second half, forcing the Governors to go three-and-out on their opening series. As Nelson was driving into Buckingham territory, Caleb Taylor made a dazzling one-handed interception to thwart the visitors’ following drive.
The Governors (0-1) wouldn’t go away though, marching down the field on their first possession in the fourth quarter. Nelson took to the air, as James Saunders hooked up with Quincy Murphy for a 60-yard touchdown play to cut the lead to 20-13 with 7:41 remaining.
“It was that type of ballgame,” Nelson coach Mark Wells said. “I told somebody earlier this week that it was going to come down to the fourth quarter. We had a chance — it was close. Our guys fought back and played hard.”
The Knights recovered the ball after the onside kick and were able to eat up clock with their methodical ground game. Taylor was the workhorse, as he toted ball for eight of nine plays on the drive, and reached the end zone on a nifty 24-yard dash to put the game out of reach.
“We always want to be the team that can say, ‘we can do that, but we can do it better,'” Taylor said. “That’s a little bit of motivation.”
Buckingham visits Prince Edward next Friday while Nelson County looks for its first win on the road at Riverheads.
