Below is an excerpt from our new feature, the

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Domination - There's no better word to

describe Amherst County football. The defending Division 4 state

champions have started off this season where they left off last year - stringing

together impressive win after impressive win. So far this season, the Lancers

have outscored their opponents by a whopping 313 points (363-50) and when you

consider that they gave up 31 of those 50 points in one game (a 63-31 win over George

Washington (Danville)), it makes the differential even more impressive. But

have they played anyone??

Well,

Amherst is a Double A school, and three of its seven victories are against Group

AAA opponents (E.C. Glass, Freedom of Prince William, and the aforementioned

Eagles of G.W. Danville). "We schedule who will play us," Coach Scott

Abell (pictured-left)said in an interview earlier this season. "E.C.

Glass (Lynchburg) and George Washington are natural rivals for us and we will

play them every year," he added. Filling out a full ten-game regular season

schedule proved difficult - thus the long distance game all the way up in Prince

William County against Freedom.?

Has the season played out as Coach Abell expected? "We did have some

concerns coming into the season, having graduated all but one offensive lineman

and our entire linebacking corps," Abell said. He continued, "In

addition, we lost a lot of offensive firepower with the graduation of running

backs Jonathan Rose and Alonzo Poe." The two were responsible

for most of the 546 regular season points the Lancers put on the scoreboard last

year. Abell did have the luxury of his starting quarterback from last season

returning - Peter Rose, now a senior and a Virginia Tech commit. Rose was

not inserted into the starting quarterback's position until the third game last

season, after Amherst began the year sluggishly with a 13-10 win over Western

Albemarle and a 17-7 loss to G.W. Danville.?

Not satisfied with his team's offensive output, Abell gave Rose the nod at

quarterback, and the rest was history. The Lancers went on to win twelve

straight games, averaging over 40 points per game. The season culminated with a

34-27 win over Louisa County for the D-4 state title.? When asked to

comment about the Amherst football program, Louisa head coach Mark Fischer

said "The Amherst situation is one that we (fellow football coaches) strive

for.? From the little leagues, middle school, junior varsity, all the way to the

top they have built a program that is one of the best in the state, and Coach

Abell and the Athletic Administration should be commended."? Fischer

admitted "I am envious and jealous," but went on to add that he is

proud of his own school's accomplishments and they working hard to reach the

same level that Amherst has achieved.

Back

to this season, Abell was quick to praise the senior leadership of his lone

returning starting on the offensive line, center Rayne DeLong.

"Rayne has been a great leader and field general for us this season,"

Abell said. He, along with our new offensive line coach Ben Martin,

deserve a lot of the credit in this group coming together," Abell went on

to say. Abell noted that Martin, while new as the o-line coach, was not new to

the team. Martin served as the assistant offensive line coach a year ago.

Not many Double A schools have assistant offensive line coaches, but Amherst

County is not your average Double A football program.?

Three seasons ago, two of Coach Abell's assistants voluntarily left the Varsity

staff to take head coaching positions at Amherst County's two middle school

football programs. Both wanted to play a part in the feeder systems that supply

the players that now play varsity football for Amherst County. While it may not

be accurate to judge middle school football programs on their won-loss records,

one of the Amherst middle schools has been undefeated for a number of years,

while the other has only suffered losses to its counterpart.?

Amherst County is currently the top-ranked team in the both the

VirginiaPreps.com Double and Division 4 football rankings. They also sit atop

the AP writers' Double A football poll, though it's difficult to understand why

they aren't a unanimous pick for the top position. Not to take anything away

from Sherando and Lafayette, both of whom received one first-place vote in this

week's poll, but most astute observers from around the Commonwealth have said

they would rank the Lancers highly in the Triple A poll!?

Pictured above are this year's offensive

lineman for the Lancers: #84 Taylor Grubbs, #55 Shawn Clark, #75 Cody Stinnett,

#61 Darius Byrd, #65 Rayne DeLong, #62 James Rogers, #53 Antoine Harvey, and

Josh Madison. Not pictured: #57 Josh Tolitol (will not finish season due to torn

ACL)

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