Don’t know if they’re really really bad or Varina is that good? I think it was a mixture of both. I left at halftime and it was 49-7 Varina. It was ugly. LT is a shell of what they used to be. With Lafeyette moving down to 3A, whoever wins Region B will play for the state championship.
Lake Taylor
- Thread starter CountyBoyGeneral
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Sigh, now we move down to a loaded 3A while 4A is wide open.
Glass could. Salem will give them a run for their money. Louisa is the best team I’ve seen this year. I’m sure EV will have a lot to say about what’s what.
Lake Taylor would probably struggle with a lot of middle of the pack teams in 4A. They looked bad but grant it, Varina is probably the 3rd or 4th best team in 5A. Newton and Foster is the team.
Louisa and Broad Run look pretty good too.
He didn't mean all of Class 4 necessarily, he was talking about Region A within Class 4.
Lake Taylor lost badly to Maury and Varina, both top rated teams in Class 5. I wouldn't count them out in the Class 4 race just yet. Louisa or Eastern View have looked better thus far though.
I watched some of the LT/Varina game on YT last night and LT is definitely very young this year. No defense at all, Varina was scoring on 2-3 play drives all first half, basic running plays. Malik Newton's hurdle play was absolutely nasty though. Louisa or EV is definitely speeding toward LU.
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Idk Mike. I’ve been wrong a lot over the years, but I don’t think Lake Taylor would finish higher than 3rd or 4th in the Seminole or River Ridge. Other than Newton and the QB Foster, they were terrible.
You might be right, I haven't seen them in person as you have. I'm probably giving LT a little bit of the benefit for their coaching and for their recent history.
WE will know for sure this Friday as LT plays a pretty good 4-1 Norcom. If they lose that one then their in deep trouble. If they win they are a contender.
Hard to say with LT, even when they play up a division or two they don't get rocked but a couple times a decade so twice in a year is pretty surprising to most people. May be more reflective of Maury and Varina rather than LT but their games against Norcom and Churchland will probably be more telling.
Great point that is a huge game in region A on the low... If they lose to Norcom we have to take them out of the championship discussion I think. They just need to stop turning the ball over and they will be ok in the class 4 race in A. I am starting g to think Churchland might be in the conversation to win region A.
After what I saw watching Lake Taylor, it’ll say more about how bad the region/district is if they continue to win. They don’t have any Wayne Davis’s or Darnell Ewell’s anymore. I like LT as a program a lot but I don’t see them making any noise this year.
Football in the 757 is down... especially in the peninsula. Every able body 6 year old used to play little league ball and now the numbers are sparse compared to what they were. I hope they can turn it around. LT will be fine though they will always be a player in class 4 year in and year out. Most of the top schools in the 757 usually have a lot of transfers. (Not talking about LT) Heck I heard rumors that one team now has a bunch of ineligible players but won’t mention any names. Look at Springs, Varina, THIS YEARS Manchester team, Hopewell, Deep Run... virtually organic which shows you HSFB is healthy in our region. At least in certain pockets anyways
This is one of my pet peeves. People not using Class 4 or Class 3, and still calling it 3A or 4A, which now implies regions, as well as levels. It would help if the VHSL would stop changing things. I am sure Lafayette was not trying to disparage all of Class 4.
Correct- I was talking only about 4A. 4B looks pretty good as the other regions. This year 4A looks like the weak region.
I fully expect several schools over the next 10 or so years to do away with football due to a lack of players.
I’ll bet it will be more than several in 10 years. At the school level it is already starting to hemorrhage. Here: Jamestown, Bruton, Grafton and other rosters are fewer players.
I'm not sure there will be an actual dip on the college side. It is a small percentage of players that end up playing college ball as it is but there are plenty of kids available to play that aren't quite good enough. The quality might go down some but that will be hard to even gauge because they will still be playing against each other, not previous teams.
Hard to say. Only loss is to LT by 1 point but only win over team with > .500 record is Hampton who themselves have a good record but no wins against teams > .500.
I'd imagine they're in for their usual PO run but they don't seem particularly noteworthy, if that makes sense. They're a top 5 D3 team, I think, but I definitely wouldn't slot them at #1.
Nobody is beating Hopewell in the East unless Lafeyette or York catches them slipping. Hopewell doesn’t get the credit they deserve Imo. They’re a lot alike Salem in terms of getting it done with the personnel they have. That hasn’t equated to state championships every year but they are always in the hunt. Henderson is the best RB in all of Virginia. Has offers from Clemson, Bama, LSU, Ohio State... 20+ power 5 programs want this kid.
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I would have to agree with a lot of this. Coach Irby and his staff have done a great job.
I think he and the Thomas deal running back are co- number ones! He had just as many of the same offers,and more but chose to commit early to Notre Dame. You are correct he is a difference maker against anybody
Yea you right with the catch them slipping part just like Norcom did last year. I’ve watched Hopewell 3 times already and DOMINATED everyone (Monacan scrimmage, Henrico, Dale) this might be Irby best team ever. They are really on a unfinished business mission.
I'm glad you mentioned Tyree, I thought some might have forgotten about him. With him out right now it is easy to overlook him but when healthy he is the real deal.
I recall two years ago a Hopewell team with "unfinished business" won it all. This team feels a lot like that one... Leaning on strong run game and a defense that is playing lights out.
Regardless, knowing the teams down here, Norcom, Phoebus, York and Lafayette, they are not going to be intimidated by Hopewell. They will get a battle from any and all of these four. And every team has at least one off night. But when?
I’ll go off of the quote, “you don’t have to be scared to get your tail whipped”.. Don’t mean that to be disrespectful at all, but I’ll be shocked to see Hopewell go down. They’ve played a good schedule and it gets no easier with Petersburg, Prince George and Dinwiddie coming up. They’ll be the most battletested team outside of maybe Norcom, who has already seen Hopewell and has Maury coming up. Don’t know much about York, other than they beat Lafayette, but looking at their schedule their wins don’t look good.
In 2018 York has few signature wins and a lot of close games and got beat by Lafayette by 40 points and lost to Phoebus in the second round of the playoffs by only 21-13. This year’s team is much better.
It’s gone take a great team effort to beat Hopewell. Friday besides the 99 yard bomb they held Dale to 82 yards and would’ve been a shutout. Tyree is the real deal but Dale other backs is really and they only had 18 yards rushing now that’s saying a lot.
I really enjoyed my one trip to football at Hopewell. Lots of community fans, not just students and friends and family of players.
I wish I could’ve checked out that Lafeyette/York game. Like you said, it only takes one bad night.
Lafayette was ahead at the half 21-7 this year for the York game and missing their best RB had their “bad” night in the second half. I am hoping for a rematch. Tabb almost upset York this past week, the same Tabb we beat by 6 TDS 2 weeks ago.