Buckingham County got the breaks it need in the first three quarters to make it a game despite a tough showing offensively. However in the fourth quarter, Appomattox put together a back-breaking drive to ice the contest.
It was during the last Raiders drive that the Knights needed a break most and, instead Appomattox methodically worked the ball down field and melted the clock Buckingham needed on its side. Five third down conversions and a fourth and six conversion with a touchdown pass was the final straw for the Knights. As such, the Raiders prevailed in the first Battle of the Ax, a newly-named rivalry established thanks to the new VHSL conference alignment and the two school’s association in the forestry industry, 25-13. It was the first victory for Appomattox against Buckingham in five years.
“That kind of drive hurts a team — I know what it does to us defensively,” said Raiders coach Doug Smith. “When you do that after you’ve made errors, fumbled the ball, we did some things that our kids could have easily dropped their heads and said ‘we aren’t going to be able to do this’. They didn’t. They just kept their heads up and came back everytime.”
Appomattox never trailed in the contest, but it was close from start to finish. After a handful of three and outs the Raiders broke the scoreless tie at the end of the first quarter on a long drive capped by a 7-yard Tevin Morgan rushing touchdown.
The Knights answered with their first scoring drive in the second quarter after John Edwards forced a fumble in Appomattox territory. Slowly but surely Buckingham worked towards the goalline on the ground before Kenneth Johnson punched in a 3-yard rushing TD.
Off of a Knights turnover soon after, the Raiders reclaimed the lead. After what looked like a sure interception for Buckingham the play before, Appomattox jumped up 12-6 with a 37-yard touchdown strike from quarterback Kendall Blackenship to Chicago Ferguson.
A botched punt set up the Raiders for a shortened drive to claim an 18-6 lead midway through the third with an 26-yard run to the endzone from Deron Kelson.
Buckingham came to life soon after drove down to the 2-yard line but a fumble on a brutal hit left them with nothing to show for it. That was until the Knights defense forced a fumble with the Raiders back against the wall. After that fumble the Knights gave the ball to Johnson who picked up his second rushing touchdown of the night, this one from five yards out to make it 18-13.
“I was proud of the young men, we got back in the game,” said Buckingham coach Craig Gill. “We just couldn’t make a stop against a seasoned team. That offensively was pretty good, they’ve been around three or four years, and we’re young up front, lost everyone there… the three big plays, we had missed assignments.”
Needing a stop, the Knights couldn’t muster one up on defense with the Raiders chewing up yardage slowly but effectively on their last drive. After five straight third down conversions it looked like Buckingham caught a break on a false start on fourth and one inside their own 10 yard line. But on a play-action rollout Blackenship hit Marquise Morgan for a 10-yard TD pass to put the game out of reach with 1:21 left.
“It was total read on the quarterback (Blackenship), sometimes he tosses it, sometimes he doesn’t and the kids they just executed there,” Smith said. “They never gave up, never got tired. They kept up the intensity.”
Buckingham (0-1) has a bye week before it prepares for its James River District opener with Amelia on September 13th.
“We just have to work on the little things,” Gill said. “We got two weeks to sit on this thing so we’ll get better, we’ll be better. I told the boys that it’s a non-district game, but a rivalry game. They wanted to win it but we we’ve beat them four years in a row so I knew they had a lot of incentive coming over here. They played hard. My hat is off to Appomattox.”
