The third time was simply the charm for Western Albemarle coach Ed Redmond. In his first two years the huddle at the end of the second round of the playoffs was a somber one, a season ending one. This time when the coach addressed his team it was in the Warriors locker room and one of jubilation and excitement. Not since 1979 has a Western football team won more than one playoff game. Thanks to a solid first half showing on offense and some clutch defense at the wire, the Warriors held serve in Crozet against a tough-nosed Christianburg team, picking up a 28-21 win in the second round of VHSL Region 3A West playoffs.
“I give these kids on defense all the credit, they just hung in there at the end,” Redmond said. “This is really exciting, we’re going to enjoy this one tonight. To be at this point in the year we’re truly thrilled to be able to keep playing. The kids have been gritty all year, working through tons of adversity and just battling.”
Up 28-7 heading into halftime, the Warriors looked poised to run away with the contest as the offense scored on each of its drives. But the first five minutes of the third quarter changed everything. For starters, the Demons came out and scored on the opening drive of the second half off a Mitchell Nowlin pass to Asher Vaughn from 13 yards out that was set up by a 40-yard run from Alec Henderson. Then on the ensuing kickoff, the Warriors fumbled and Vaughn came up with the ball. Henderson then set up a Simeon Brown 2-yard rushing TD and suddenly with 8:21 left in the game, it was 28-21.
Both sides traded punts to finish off the third quarter and by the end of it, Western held the ball for just two minutes and change and was only able to run four offensive plays. Things changed in the fourth. The Warriors were able to move the ball down field, but unable to get into scoring territory. The same was true for Christiansburg up until the final minutes of play.
With 3:10 left and armed with one timeout, the Demons were able to get into the red zone on Henderson’s legs. With 50 seconds left, Western forced a fourth and one situation at its own six yard line, but an offsides penalty moved the chains. The Warriors defense met Henderson at the 1-yard line on the next play. Western then came up with the two biggest plays of its season — first with Osiris Crutchfield coming up with a sack with 10 seconds left, then the Warriors getting a pass defended from Derek Domecq on a last ditch effort with time expired to preserve the win.
“We came back, we got the stop,” Crutchfield said. “I had no idea what was going on to be honest, everything was just done unconsciously. (On the sack) they’re at the six yard line, you figure they’re going to pass just I ran at them. It was just really natural stuff.”
The first half simply belonged to Western. The Warriors came out with a balanced attack and drew first blood with a 39-yard TD pass from Sam Hearn to Henry Kreienbaum. Then after Christiansburg answered with its only first half touchdown, Hearn and Oliver Herndon marched the ball downfield with Hearn finishing off the drive on an 8-yard run to make it 14-7.
“We came out in the first half with a plan and I think we really just executed, that’s all it really was,” Hearn said. “In the first half we played our game. We didn’t quite do that in the second.”
On the next Warriors possession Hearn found Travis Daly in the back of the endzone for a 4-yard TD pass. Then Herndon picked up a 17-yard TD run with 2:13 left in the second to put the Warriors up by 21.
“We had a good rhythm going there but in the second half, credit Christiansburg because they came out and made adjustments and did what they had to do,” Redmond said. “The seized all the momentum up until the end.”
On the night, Hearn finished 11 of 18 passing for 225 yards and two TDs with no interceptions. He also ran 10 times for 75 yards and a score. Herndon finished with 65 yards on his 15 touches. Kreienbaum had two receptions for 88 yards while Daly had five catches for 70.
“We’re just a team right now,” Hearn said. “We don’t have one player that we’re leaning on. Everyone is contributing and we’re all brothers and that’s helped us fight through everything.”
For Christiansburg, Henderson led all rushers with 169 yards on 28 attempts. Nowlin was 8 for 15 passing with 173 yards. Brown had three catches for 83 yards.
Western (10-2) will host Waynesboro (7-5) on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Crozet. The Warriors defeated the Little Giants in the second week of September 33-22.
“We’ve never been here before in the last 25 years,” Crutchfield said. “This is historic for us.”
