Western Albemarle’s back was against the wall before it came into its road matchup, a regular season finale against Louisa County. But facing an 11-point deficit going into the third quarter, that feeling of win or go home truly set in for the Warriors. Thanks to four forced turnovers on defense and 21 unanswered points in the second half, Western fought through its win or go home scenario, and in a way, got both thanks to its 24-14 victory. The Warriors win over the already playoff bound Lions seems to have set up a Region II Division 3 matchup at Jefferson District rival Monticello.
“We came out flat but the fact of the matter was that we played really well on defense in that second half,” said Western coach Ed Pierce. “It put Louisa in a position, I think, where they were a bit out of scheme. That’s a playoff team, really talented, really well coached and for that reason it’s a really good win for us.”
Pierce would not cop to an enthralling halftime speech that inspired his players, but it sure looked like that was the case as the Warriors came out of the break and marched down the field to score on thier opening drive of the third quarter on a 25-yard pass to Daniel Kuzjak from quarterback Kent Henry.
“We started off slow but ended up completing the plays we needed to,” Henry said. “We realized that this could be the last 24 minutes of football and we didn’t want to send our seniors out on a bad note.”
Western struggled offensively in the first half, but in the second half Henry exploded, finishing with 191 yards passing, three passing touchdowns and 93 yards on the ground.
“I told my guys after the game, everything that could go wrong, did,” said Louisa coach Jon Meeks. “And on the flip side of that I’ve got a lot of respect for Western. They flew around and they played with that fear in their heart… we didn’t play our ‘A’ game, but you sometimes have to look back. Did we lose because we didn’t play our ‘A’ game or was it because Western played well and they forced us out of it. I think they just played us well.”
Trailing 14-10, Western took the lead late in the third quarter thanks to the third of Louisa’s four turnovers, making the most of a short field and capitalizing on a 2-yard pass from Henry to Nick Drapanas.
With a 3-point lead, the Warriors added needed insurance on a long drive after a Louisa punt where Henry made the Lions pay on quarterback draws and eventually capped it all with a 5-yard strike to Drapanas to make it 24-10.
Turnovers dominated the story for the last eight minutes of play with Western fumbling with four minutes to play to give Louisa life. However, after the Lions drove deep into Warriors territory, they turned the ball over on downs inside of two minutes to bring a halt to any comeback hopes the home team had on senior night. One short Western fourth down conversion for a first down later and the Warriors picked up what was an improbably playoff berth just a month ago when they sat at 2-4.
Louisa and Western both struggled with turnovers in the first. While the Warriors drew first blood after a Lions fumble in the form of a 32-yard field goal, the Lions answered with 14-points thanks to its rushing attack from quarterback Zach Jackson and running back Andre Mealy. Jackson made it 7-3 midway through the first on a 3-yard keeper while Mealy punched in a 1-yard run in the last minute of the second half to make it 14-3.
The Western defense keyed in on Mealy in the second half and forced the Lions to throw the ball downfield or run the ball to the edge with receivers Peanut Johsnon and Lorenzo Henson, with those options yielding little results.
Mealy finished with a strong 90-yard game on 19 carries, but could not grind away at Western with his team facing a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter.
“We tried a lot of different things on offense but just couldn’t find that rhythm,” Meeks said. “I think my guys will now have that same fear in their hearts now that it’s do or die. The last thing on earth our seniors want is to turn their pads in. We’re having too much fun to do that. We’re going to learn from this on film and we’ll come out fired up next week.”
Austin Ellis had a huge game for Western on defense as he locked in on Mealy and Jackson in the second half, but also finished with 107 yards receiving on seven catches, including a critical fourth down and long conversion for 13 yards to set up Kuzjak’s score to start the third.
Western (6-4, 3-2), in all likelyhood will face Monticello on the road on either Friday or Saturday.
“To me that’s the real beauty of this game and what I’m most proud about with these kids — they knew they had to come in here and win, and that’s not easy to do period, much less when you need it to get in the playoffs,” Pierce said. “This is that much more special and really nice way to end this regular season.”
Louisa (7-3, 2-3 JD) secured a Region II Division 4 bid before this contest and awaits its opponent for Friday.
