Appo was definitely the better tesm but Draft gave them an extremely short field on 3 occasions. Appo got the ball at the 33, 7, and 13 yard lines. Appo scored TDs on all 3. Game was close until the 4th quarter. It was 28-21 Appo and Draft kicked it in the endzone so Appo got the ball at the 20 and on the 1st play Appo’s qb took it 80 yds for the td and that pretty much ended any hope Draft had to pull the upset.
(1) Appomattox vs. (1) Stuarts Draft 4:30 at Salem
- Thread starter Gunz41!
- Start date
Appo seems to consistently be able to force teams into hurting themselves and their ST units are great. It's a huge plus if you can work from a short field, going 80+ yards on a good defense is rough so if you can set yourself up in plus territory, you're in great shape.
They seem to consistently have talent everywhere, but a lot of schools have talent in 2A but no one else is winning four titles in five years because they have an elite coach. Just a fantastic program.
Winning four titles in five years hasn't been done in 2A (or A D2) since 94-98 PV, and they will be a heavy favorite to make it five out of six and IIRC that's never happened in the division.
I will say again that coach Smith is a phenomenal coach. Loved his interaction with the players before the game and his gamesmanship during it. Tactician is not even adequate. I though he played the wind, the opponent and the clock beautifully. Congrats to Appomattox on a great year.
Draft played a decent game but having seen them, they looked tight early then seemed to drift just a bit in the 3rd into the 4th. I know there are no moral victories but to go from 3-7 last year to in this game with 2 minutes to go in the 3rd is quite an accomplishment. Congrats to the Cougars on a great year, use today to fuel the work to get back to this stage.
Draft played a decent game but having seen them, they looked tight early then seemed to drift just a bit in the 3rd into the 4th. I know there are no moral victories but to go from 3-7 last year to in this game with 2 minutes to go in the 3rd is quite an accomplishment. Congrats to the Cougars on a great year, use today to fuel the work to get back to this stage.
Experience means a lot in state championship game. I have seen teams pucker up when they get to state championship. They get too conservative and drift away from what got them there.
Draft did well at clock management and ground and pound hitting us with 3,4,5 yard plays and then throwing a pass in between. Draft played well but STs hurt their chances of keeping it close later in game. My brother called it, he said “if they kick to Gilliam he going all the way.” Well he didnt go all the way, but close enough. Then the muffed punt that went nowhere hurt big time. Then that 80 yarder sealed the deal.
The SD QB is an athlete!!! He threw passes that should have been caught, but he threw som that I know he wanted back when he was under pressure. I actually thought SD should’ve took some shots down field early in game.
Congrats on a great season and im hearing yall not losing much this yr soooo.....maybe we will meet again.
Congrats to the coaches, players and everyone that supports our Raiders! I definitely didnt see us being here after the Heritage game.
It was good to see a lot of my friends and family.
PO1 for LIFE!!!!
The SD QB is an athlete!!! He threw passes that should have been caught, but he threw som that I know he wanted back when he was under pressure. I actually thought SD should’ve took some shots down field early in game.
Congrats on a great season and im hearing yall not losing much this yr soooo.....maybe we will meet again.
Congrats to the coaches, players and everyone that supports our Raiders! I definitely didnt see us being here after the Heritage game.
It was good to see a lot of my friends and family.
PO1 for LIFE!!!!
What was ridiculous was the NFHS Network. They mustve picked up the camera man off the street for the 1A game cuz he wouldnt even follow the play. Was absolutely terrible. And all the games are up for on demand except for the Appo game, which i didnt get to see live. They are terrible. Need to take notes from MetroNews.com on how to stream a game. Plus they do it for free. NFHS is a joke.
Congrats to Stuart Draft for a great championship game and season. Very talented team . Appo was fortunate in making big plays when needed ; Lawing, Gilliam, Ferguson as well as our Defense to just name a few, stepped up to the challenge when they needed to. Coach Smith & staff have done one hell of a job this year getting this team to Salem. The Raider players showed up Saturday and gutted out a win!
#RaiderProud
#RaiderProud
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I agree with Advocate, the SD QB was on point.
I was sort of disappointed in the crowd size on the home side, with two teams playing in the championship game, I thought the stands would have been packed.
Wish we would have brought more folks out as well.
Congratulations Raiders!
See yall next year, next job is getting that ax back!
I was sort of disappointed in the crowd size on the home side, with two teams playing in the championship game, I thought the stands would have been packed.
Wish we would have brought more folks out as well.
Congratulations Raiders!
See yall next year, next job is getting that ax back!
Advocate said it well as he always does SD was a great team and played with heart. Gosh i wish all of them well and hope to see them back in the thick of the game next year also. Met a few SD and Riverheads fans really great people.
They shut our lady down who streams them for free on FB then they should offer a good alternative or let her raise the 500 or 1000 for those wanting to watch her. Charging $11 and putting out a poor product should voiced loud to the VHSL.
SD played a great game and made some big plays across the middle or with throwing to their RB that had our defense on their heels.
Appo bent, cracked, and faltered but would gather themselves and fight back and stand tall at times.
Still on a high from it. Blessed to have ( or will have) 5 of those rings in my house. My oldest son was part of the 15,16,17 and. My youngest son was a freshman in 17 and earned his second as a junior last night.
God is good and we as team parents are blessed to have Coach Smith teaching these boys.
Appo bent, cracked, and faltered but would gather themselves and fight back and stand tall at times.
Still on a high from it. Blessed to have ( or will have) 5 of those rings in my house. My oldest son was part of the 15,16,17 and. My youngest son was a freshman in 17 and earned his second as a junior last night.
God is good and we as team parents are blessed to have Coach Smith teaching these boys.
I heard! Crazy! I heard from my boy here in Hampton (WT from Appo) they had 2 SD announcers that would not comment on Appo in positive way at all. He said they was saying “Appomattox is so big that its like david and goliath!” Lolololol! Man SD was just as big or maybe bigger!
He called me and complained about how horrible it during game. Then called me driving home saying they never said anything positive about Appo, even win we pulled away, they was making excuses for SD.
Check out that Hopewell (on richmond/Petersburg outskirts) vs LB game (3a)! 3a championship was with hopewell vs Phoebus. They won by a TD.
3a That RB supposed to be recruited by VT, UVA, Liberty, Oklahoma U. He is gonna be great!
Advocate he is right ! I watched the game from here , dude I could not believe it , it was like they got these dudes straight from Stuart draft and it was there show , if They said anything positive about Appo it was that they had been there before and was accustomed to be there
NFHS should not have commentators from one of the schools that are playing , does not look good on them when they get all the praise .
My parents said the same thing. They said it very biased towards SD.
Oh well!!! Score speaks the loudest.
Oh well!!! Score speaks the loudest.
I don't know what yall heard, but there was certainly not SD people doing the announcing. If it was the NFHS, they do games across the entire nation. I don't know how anyone could lump SD into it for any kind of bias? Its not like they have even been there before
Gunz ! The one guy said he personally new the head coach and had attended the games at draft ! Just telling you what I heard ! But I will have to say at least they did follow the ball better in that game. In the riverheads game did not even get to see the plays end ! It was like no one was moving the camera to follow the ball .
I did not pay them to see other games!! I paid for one pur[pose and i expect to get what the heck i pay for. And yeah i'm pissed.
I may not be right about this but I don’t think that NFHS uses a camera crew.
I think they have a partnership with a company called “Pixellot” which provides an automated system with multiple cameras that is placed at midfield and is supposed to follow the action on the field.
I think they have a partnership with a company called “Pixellot” which provides an automated system with multiple cameras that is placed at midfield and is supposed to follow the action on the field.
And that matters because of what? The Class 1 game was at salem and it's available.
I was replying to the posts that said that the cameramen couldn’t follow the action.
Well even if true, that doesn't mean that SD had something to do with it. In fact, SD doesn't have an announce crew for their own games. There is the radio guys that cover the entire county, but they certainly aren't even SD homers.
Maybe there was some kind of issue with them showing the game, or even an issue with the audio and they piggybacked off of the Augusta county radio crew? I have no clue, I was there, but I found it wrong to say they were from SD
Heard he has already committed to Clemson.
I gotta disagree, SD showed us more than Graham this year.