Both of Blue Ridge’s top two receivers were missing.
While it showed in the stats, somehow the Barons worked through it.
A significant factor in that was Cody Pegram who missed the majority of the first meeting between hosting Blue Ridge and Christchurch, the defending VISAA Division 2 champs. Behind an outstanding game on defense all game and an offensive surge in the second half, the Barons pushed through the adversity it faced before it ever stepped on the field as they took down the Seahorses 27-13 to earn a second state championship shot in four years.
“We talked to the team before and they had to understand that two guys cannot make the difference, as good as those two are, we still had an entire team here and had to play football regardless,” said Barons coach Orlando Patterson. “At the half I talked to the line and told them they had to get a surge going. We can run the ball, we can find the gaps. We just had to play fierce and play with tenacity and that’s what happened.”
Before Blue Ridge’s offense ever stepped on the field, it had a 7-0 lead to work with thanks to an interception by Darryl Smith. The senior stopped a long Christchurch opening drive and took his pick 85 yards for a touchdown.
But after that, the Seahorses settled in to dominate the rest of the first half with Blue Ridge’s offense struggling to move the ball. Christchurch made it a 1-point game thanks to a long drive capped by a 1-yard run from Jordan Wallace with just over a minute to go in the first quarter.
In the second, Seahorse quarterback Alex Girvan hit Brendan Cole for a touchdown to make it 13-7, a score that held until the middle of the third quarter.
Blue Ridge’s offense never made it across midfield in the first half, but a 60-yard pass from from Tristan Allen to Chase Fraser who beat man coverage and then avoided a hit from a safety made it a 1-point Baron’s lead.
“I took the outside and I just saw the ball go up,” Fraser said. “I knew I was one step ahead and caught it. I didn’t see the (other defender coming), so it was pure reaction after that. I don’t think they were expecting the pass going to my side at all.”
Not long after that, the ground game behind Pegram and Shawn Steen put the Barons in the redzone. With 6:42 in the third, Pegram scored his first touchdown of the game on a 15-yarder to make it 20-13.
“We were waiting for guys to step up, and when it happened, we took the momentum and rode it,” Pegram said. “At halftime Coach Patterson talked to the line and told them it was their game to win. I didn’t want this to be my last game, so I got behind them and just ran hard.”
The Barons defense was on point for all of the second half, keeping Wallace limited to short yardage and Girvan from getting the ball deep downfield. After a fourth down stop with just over two minutes to play, Blue Ridge needed two first downs to burn through Christchurch’s timeouts and the clock.
Instead they got Pegram’s second TD on the ground with the help of his offensive line through a gang tackle right at the line of scrimmage. Running eight yards with the pile, Pegram officially iced the game at 27-13.
“The group that we started with in preseason – we lost eight starters on one side and nine on the other – we just didn’t know what was going to happen for us this year,” said Christchurch coach Ed Homer. “The seniors, they just did an outstanding job of leading. They did this together. It wasn’t any one player throughout the year. It was all of them and all their hard work. It’s tough because we made some mistakes here, but Blue Ridge is just a good football team and I wish them all the luck. They just did a great job.”
Blue Ridge (7-3) will host the VISAA Division 2 championship thanks to fourth seed Nansemond-Suffolk taking down top ranked Trinity Episcopal. It’s a rematch of the 2009 championship game where the Barons came up just short.
“We’re going to get after it this week,” Patterson said. “It’s the last game, we have to work all week. We’re at home which is lovely, but we can’t take them lightly so we just have to go to work.”
