The first match up between these two teams drew a large crowd at Bulldog Field for Luray's Homecoming game. The Bulldogs would come out of this game with a 42-33 victory over the (at the time) undefeated Leemen. This time the Bulldogs will travel for the Regional Championship game in Staunton on Friday night.
Thoughts and predictions on the outcome???
A lot of times in a rematch, it is a popular belief that the losing team actually has an advantage going into the rematch. I don't buy it for this instance as Luray has already shown that they can effectively prepare for a rematch, as evidenced in their 2 victories over East Rockingham this year; and this is their 3rd week of preparation for the Leemen (they had a bye week before facing Lee the first time), so from a preparation standpoint, they should be more prepared for Lee than any team they've faced.
In the first match-up, Luray whipped Lee pretty good in every facet of the game. They had long/grueling/smashmouth drives, as well as quick/big play scoring drives, they had success on special teams, they forced turnovers in the form of interceptions and sack/fumbles, physically dominated, and while Lee put up some points, the Leemen got smacked around and played shell shocked for parts of the game.
There's more at stake this go round and the Leemen have actually played a lot better since being beaten by Luray. Hopefully that trend of improvement can continue this week, but Luray is a very difficult matchup for this year's Lee team, as they are so physical, athletic, and well coached. Lee played exceptionally well last week in the victory over Central. I knew Lee could possibly upset Central, but I didn't think they would be able to defeat them by that kind of margin as I thought Central was one of the better teams in this whole playoff and would go toe to toe with the best, based on the film I got to see. I think they were a better team than the outcome would have you believe, it just was somewhat of an off night for them, but the Leemen deserve some credit for sure as they executed a great gameplan.
I'm not going to make a prediction this week, but I think either team is capable of winning, although one thing's for sure: I'd really like this one to go in favor of the Leemen
