For whatever reason, whenever Appomattox had Buckingham County dead to right, it found a way to give the Knights one last breath of air.
The season opener in Buckingham between these rivals was about defense more than anything else. In fact an offensive touchdown wasn’t scored until the last minute of regulation — a 14-yard pass from BJ Gough to Leon Ragland that allowed the Knights to force overtime. Of course in a game that had 11 combined turnovers during regulation, it seemed only fitting that there would be a 12th, and unfortunately for Buckingham, there was no recovering this time around as the Raiders edged their hosts 14-7 in overtime.
“I don’t think we thought about losing (going into overtime) and that was a big thing, a positive thing,” said Appomattox coach Doug Smith. “Buckingham runs a great offense and so all week we preached that we had to be physical. They’ve got a great athlete with Ragland, their quarterback (BJ Gough) played a great game. We just had to be physical upfront to deal with that and I think we did.”
Appomattox looked like it had the game wrapped up with two minutes to go in the fourth quarter, but for the fourth time in the game, they fumbled and it set up one last chance for the Knights to try and tie things up. After Ragland hauled in a 26-yard pass from Gough, the Knights found themselves in a fourth and nine situation from their own 16 yard line. It was there that Ragland hauled in the game-tying catch in dramatic fashion — leaping forward, one handed, just inside the back pylon of the endzone.
“There’s one word we always talk about and it’s about family, we stick together,” Ragland said. “BJ, that’s my blood brother, he came up clutch. He knew how to come up big for us (on that pass).”
The Raiders rebounded though after the break heading into OT. On the opening possession of overtime, Appomattox reclaimed the lead with Buster Henderson scoring from 10-yards out on a reverse to make it 14-7.
“We wanted to find a way to get the ball to one of our wide outs, some type of quick pass, swing or whatever,” Smith said. “We didn’t look good on the jet sweep most of the game, so we tried what we could.”
It put Buckingham in a corner. The Knights were set up with third and goal from the 6-yard line when a pass from Gough was tipped and Deven Dews just happened to be in the right place at the right time to come up with the interception. It marred what was one of most impressive Buckingham defensive performances period, harking back to the way the Knights played Dan River in the 2013 Region 2A East playoffs.
“The defense played so well, I’m so proud of these boys, they didn’t give up a point (in regulation),” said Buckingham coach Craig Gill. “They did that to a team that’s so good, brought everybody back. We knew this was going to be a hard-fought game and I’m so proud we made it as close as we did. We really had a chance to win but couldn’t get it down the pipeline when we had the chances. A lot of that was due to other things, substitutions, kids missing (because of in-game injuries) and that’s on us as coaches. It wasn’t just execution.”
Appomattox’s lone score in regulation came on defense as Henderson came up with a fumble and returned it for a 40-yard touchdown with just over six minutes to play in the first quarter. The Raiders had two plays that resulted in touchdowns called back because of penalties, one in the first quarter and another in the third.
But again, the game was a war of turnovers. The Knights came up with four different stops on fourth down to go along with the three fumbles and muffed punt they forced. Midway through the fourth quarter after a fumble, the Raiders defense managed to stand tall as they forced a fumble on third down at their own 1-yard line.
“This was just a great high school football game and I really hope the loss doesn’t carry over because there’s a lot we can spring board from this,” Gill said. “We can keep getting better and we’re not going to play many teams better at receiver, quarterback and running back than what they have. They had a great defense too, so you can’t take anything away from Appomattox, my hat is off to them.”
