Louisa County coach Will Patrick knew pretty quickly that Jayden Seaberry needed to play football.
“He was in my ninth grade gym class and he wasn’t playing football – I watched him run around and I was like, you need to play some football and he was all about it,” Patrick said. “Played one year of JV and now he’s running for 200 yards against a really talented team. What a night.”
Friday the Lions’ faithful and rival Orange County got to witness the full impact of that bit of in-class recruitment. Seaberry ripped off 55-yard, 63-yard and 22-yard touchdowns in the first half to put Orange in a three-touchdown hole they never managed to climb out of as Louisa won 35-22.
“I’m thankful for the blockers for letting me hit the hole,” Seaberry said. “I just hit green grass and I think the two touchdowns built up the momentum and it carried through the rest of the game.”
Seaberry finished with 227 yards on 20 touches as the 5-foot-6 running back ran incredibly hard.
“He’s not a real tall kid, but he’s strong, strong as an ox,” Patrick said.
He did it all behind a physical young offensive line that’s making incredible strides.
“The o-line was firing off the ball, they’ve got a freshman, sophomore, sophomore, junior and one senior,” Patrick said. “Even when we go heavy package it’s another sophomore on the line. We’re so young and as a coach it’s so fun to watch because we still make a lot of mistakes but it’s a team effort, no matter what it takes.”
While Louisa built that early lead, Orange County refused to go quietly, coming alive in the second quarter with a 13-yard touchdown by Cameron Washington before a fantastic drive capped by a Christopher Loveless touchdown to open the third cut the Louisa County lead to 21-14.
“That first drive of the second half was really what we want to see from an offense,” said Orange County coach Colston Bayless. “But (Louisa is) really good at what they do, you can try all you want to replicate it in practice but it’s another thing to see it for real on a Friday.”
Louisa seemed unfazed by the Hornets’ surge and unleashed an 11-play, 66-yard drive finished off by a Jaheim Jackson keeper over the left side from three yards out to push the lead back to 14 points. A few minutes later, Louisa scored again, this time when Jackson hit Jayden Davis for a 36-yard touchdown to make it 35-14 and largely put the game out of reach for the Hornets.
With Seaberry drawing attention due to his early game exploits, a ton of different things opened up for the Lions offensively, with Donovan Nelson and Jackson both coming up with solid runs in key moments.
Darius Holmes hit Brody Foran for a 34-yard touchdown for the Hornets late in the fourth, but Louisa ran the clock out after that with another grinder of a drive in the final four minutes to put the game away for good. For the most part, Louisa’s defense
“I thought our defense played lights out, Orange is loaded with talent, they’re full of athletes,” Patrick said.
Louisa will face Charlottesville next week while the Hornets host Fluvanna County in a critical matchup for both those squads.
