Craig Gill gathered his team up before the game and explained one simple thing to his players before they took the field against visiting Gate City — Buckingham County had never lost a playoff game on its own turf. The players didn’t let their coach nor the throng of fans that weathered the cold down in any way, from start to finish.
Back at home after a tight victory over Dan River last week, the Knights looked like they did two weeks prior against James River, but now in the third round of the Division 2A West Region playoffs. Buckingham scored early and often behind its vaunted rushing duo of Kenneth Johnson and Leon Ragland. Conversely, the Knights defense was staunch against the Blue Devils ground game and came up with a pair of turnovers out of the gate. Before Gate City blinked, it was in a two-possesion hole and it never recovered as Buckingham cruised to a 42-17 win to reach the state semifinals.
“The kids prepared really well,” Gill said. “They had school off and they came out and practiced in the cold and then I’ve got a great coaching staff here. It’s a good bunch of boys and a good staff that knows how to break other teams down. We get them prepared and then the boys just believe in us. It’s just been great, one game at a time. I’m proud of the way they keep getting better.”
Gate City’s first two possessions set the table for a busy day from offense as it was the defense’s opportunistic nature that got things going with turnovers.
“This is how we’ve been all throughout the playoffs, putting teams in a bind and creating turnovers,” said senior John Edwards. “We get the ball for the offense in good field position. The defense is just playing really well right now.”
After the Blue Devils first miscue, a muffed punt, Johnson tore off a 29-yard TD run. After a fumble the next go around for Gate City, Ragland and Johnson methodically worked down to the goalline where the senior picked up the second of his five total touchdowns.
“We saw their blitzes early and the line just picked it up,” Johnson said. “They made the blocks and so we started bouncing it (outside) once we saw what we saw.”
If there was one moment where the Blue Devils looked like they found it spark, it came on its next possession when Hunter Collier hit Caleb Herron on a short pass only to pitch it back to Collier who took it 62 yards to the house to cut the Knights lead to 14-7. Not to be outdone though, Johnson and Ragland blazed by the Blue Devils defense and Johnson punched in his third TD, again from two yards out.
“I’ve said it before but these boys are like sharks in the water and when they smell the blood, boy you better watch out,” Gill said. “That was big for us to get that jump. We created those turnovers early and got the ball and stuck it in.”
After things calmed down for a bit, the Blue Devils picked up a 29-yard field goal. It wound up being the only points scored by either squad in the second quarter.
The Knights came out of the break going for the jugular. A 51-yard bomb from Ragland to Jesse Hickman set up a beautifully executed halfback pass from Johnson to Justin Ayres to make it 28-10.
“We worked on that all week and I couldn’t get it down at first,” Johnson said. “But we did it and got it.”
Early in the fourth, Johnson’s fourth rushing touchdown from eight yards out put the final nail in the coffin. Gate City responded with it’s last gasp offensively, scoring on a long drive from three yards out. Ragland picked up a feel good score late in the fourth from eight yards out to round up the scoring.
On the day, Johnson finished with 168 yards on 28 carries and had five total touchdowns. Ragland had an impressive 182 yards on just 18 carries. The Buckingham defense forced four turnovers in the win and gave up 292 yards of total offense, the bulk of it coming in the fourth quarter.
Buckingham, the sixth seed, (10-3) now travels to Brunswick, the top ranked seed left (No.3) in the East Region as cross bracketing now takes place. But as the Knights hit the road, they leave feeling awfully good knowing the last game of the season on their turf was one of their best.
“This means a lot,” Johnson said. “This group, we’ve never been this far before. It feels good right now so we’re going to try and keep on pushing.”
