Jefferson Forest’s football team rides a five-game winning streak into Friday night’s Division 4, Region III championship at Amherst.

“What’s ironic is our last loss was against Amherst,” Cavaliers coach Don Rice said of the Lancers’ 35-6 rout of JF on Oct. 10 at Lancers’ Stadium, site of Friday’s rematch.

Brookville heads into Friday’s Division 3, Region III Championship against R.E. Lee at Stinger Stadium knowing that if the Bees are to repeat as the region champions, they will need to bring down their man the first time, every time.

“We have to wrap up,” Brookville coach Jeff Woody said. “We have to tackle well because if we miss a tackle, they have the speed to take it all the way.”

11:15 a.m. tallies showed 311 responses, up from 235 yesterday. See which teams won popular opinion and make your picks if you haven’t already.

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Scoreboard from Friday’s high school football playoff games

The Gretna Hawks averaged more than 40 points this season on their way to a 9-1 record and the top seed in the Group A Region B Division 2 state playoffs. But on Friday night, the fourth-seeded Goochland Bulldogs were able to keep the Hawks’ potent offense under wraps — for the first half, anyway.

Could Amherst come from behind? Twice? They hadn’t been put in this position since the season-opening loss to Brookville, but the Lancers were able to put it together, come back, and then hold off a strong Blue Streak team to win the Region III semifinal game 28-21, Friday night at Stinger Stadium.

Dae’Quan Scott threw for 146 yards and a touchdown leading the air attack against the visiting Minutemen for 35-7 victory in the Region 3, Division III, semifinals.
With the score 13-7 and 10 seconds left in the second quarter, Liberty loaded the box with eight defenders, appearing to play an imaginary game of chicken with Scott

Clarke County proved it could overcome adversity in Friday night’s Region B, Division II football playoff game against Appomattox.
The Eagles overcame three turnovers and a momentum swinging score by the Raiders that cut Clarke County’s lead to 20-19 at the half, but Clarke senior Tyler Morley sealed it by intercepting Kenny Scott’s pass in the end zone with 55 seconds left to help Clarke hold off Appomattox 27-19 at Wilbur M. Feltner Stadium.
“I knew we had to step up and it was a close game,” Morley said. “I knew I had to just do it and pick up the team. ... I read (Thomas’) eyes and I knew when it was coming so I turned around and just jumped up and got it.”

William Campbell is known for its speed and on Friday night the Generals played as though they had somewhere else to be.
The Generals blitzed Riverheads, scoring the first three times they touched the ball on offense to take a 22-0 lead and cruise past the Gladiators 64-6 in the Region B, Division 1, semifinals

The Brookville Bees wasted no time shaking off any rust that might have threatened to tarnish their perfect season after a two-week layoff.
The Bees took their opening possession 74 yards against the visiting Northside Vikings before stalling out on the five-yard line and settling for a short field goal and an early 3-0 lead. Although the offense produced another 35 points, those three were all the Bees would need on a night where their defense took center stage, allowing just 85 yards in the 38-0 win.

Check out tonight’s scores as they come in! Make sure to check back later for videos.

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Two-time defending Group AA, Division 4 state champion Amherst opens Region III playoff action tonight against the same Harrisonburg team it beat 47-7 in last season’s semifinal.

Like Jefferson Forest, which travels to Turner Ashby, and William Campbell, which hosts Riverheads, Brookville’s football team prepares to face a Wing-T attack tonight, for the first time since it beat Amherst 24-21 in its season opener.

Similar to that game, the Bees have had plenty of time to get ready for Northside, their 7:30 p.m. Division 3, Region III semifinal opponent at Stinger Stadium. Brookville’s last game was Oct. 24 before taking its scheduled bye week and receiving a first-round bye in the playoffs’ first round.

After scrimmaging Turner Ashby in the preseason and watching film on tonight’s Division 4, Region III host, Jefferson Forest coach Don Rice considers the Knights as hard-hitting a team as any the Cavaliers have faced this season.

“It was a very even scrimmage,” he said. “It was very physical. I’d put it up there with Brookville and Amherst and Pulaski County,” the three teams that have beaten the Cavaliers (7-3).

When Liberty High’s football team travels to Robert E. Lee for tonight’s Division 3, Region III semifinal, the Minutemen could have a tough time tackling quarterback Dae’Quan Scott, the Southern Valley District offensive player of the year.

“He’s one of the faster backs we’ve seen in a long time,” Liberty coach Chris Watts said, noting he is the primary runner in the Fighting Leemen’s spread formation. “He’s rushed for an enormous amount of yards. He’s a very good quarterback-slash-running back.”

One hundred and seventy-five miles separate Appomattox from Berryville, but somehow, the Raiders’ football team is classified in the same region of the state as Clarke County’s.

That will give the Eagles, champions of the Bull Run District, a decisive home-field advantage when they host Appomattox, which finished third in the Dogwood District, in tonight’s Division II, Region B semifinal.

GRETNA — At most high schools, when the football team qualifies for the state playoffs, words like “excitement” and “anticipation” can usually be used to describe the mood in the classrooms, the hallways and the community.

But at Gretna High this week, there’s been almost a “business as usual” approach, both for the players and for the student body as a whole. After all, the Hawks and their fans are accustomed to playing deep into November, and often into December as well. Since 2003, they are 71-4 overall and have captured three state titles.

It’s become a postseason classic, a tradition as predictable as the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions playing football on Thanksgiving Day.

William Campbell and Riverheads will face off in the Division 1, Region B playoffs for the seventh time in the past eight seasons Friday night at 7 in Naruna, with the perennial Dogwood and Shenandoah district powers dueling for the right to move on.

Here’s an unpublished glance at all seven of tonight’s high school football playoff games involving Lynchburg-area teams

One hundred and seventy-five miles separate Appomattox from Berryville, but somehow, the Raiders’ football team is classified in the same region of the state as Clarke County’s.

It’s become a postseason classic, a tradition as predictable as the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions playing football on Thanksgiving Day.

RUSTBURG — Rustburg’s volleyball team picked a bad night not to be playing its best as Salem swept the Red Devils 25-17, 25-23, 25-21 in Tuesday’s Group AA state quarterfinals.

High school scoreboard for Saturday’s results

There were some anxious moments at the start of the match as a familiar thorn in Rustburg’s side — a shaky serve receive — briefly tormented the Red Devils on Saturday at Jefferson Forest in the Region III volleyball championship match.

But the Red Devils (23-3) settled down, fought back, won the first game, 25-23, and rolled through Game 2, 25-19. And, after stumbling in a 25-11 loss in Game 3, Rustburg finished off the Knights in Game 4, 25-17, to win the title.

The Flint Hill Huskies have the Liberty Christian Academy’s number this year.

The morning after the Bulldogs’ football team fell at home to the Huskies, LCA’s volleyball team was swept by Flint Hill in the championship match of the VIS tournament, 25-16, 25-18 and 25-17.

THE PLAINS — Janel Reeves, Brookville’s running princess as her coach Cory Morris calls her, was crowned queen of the Bees’ girls cross country team Saturday morning.

The energetic senior out-leaned Hidden Valley sophomore Annie Lehardy at the finish line to claim the Group AA girls state championship at Great Meadow’s 3.1-mile course.

THE PLAINS — Freaks of nature.

That’s what Jefferson Forest junior Josh Morris considers the fastest finishers in Saturday’s Group AA boys cross country state championship race at Great Meadow’s 3.1-mile course, used primarily for steeplechase horse racing.

“It seriously was a horse race out here,” said Morris, one of the state’s top-ranked runners entering the season who settled for seventh place in 15 minutes, 57 seconds, nearly a minute behind Jamestown’s Andrew Colley.

Defending state champion LCA advances to this morning’s VIS Division I final against Flint Hill