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As part of our comprehensive coverage, we count down the Top Ten Rankings for each classification. It's found exclusively on this web site with updates weekly during the season.

What to Know: Coming off their first playoff win in 14 years, the Bassett Bengals are brimming with excitement as they prepare for their sixth season under Head Coach Brandon Johnson. Each year, the win percentage has improved, but the matter in which they went 9-3 in 2021 was even more eyebrow raising as they averaged 45.8 points per game, a school-record. The best may be yet to come with a veteran group on offense, led by a talented four-year starter at quarterback with multiple scholarship offers, an athletic group of pass catchers, and four offensive line starters back.

Bassett wouldn't trade the quarterback it has for another out there as Ja'Ricous Hairston (6-2, 220) has emphatically elevated his play and the others around him. The makeup is somewhat reminiscent to that of Jabari Blake, who directed Heritage-Lynchburg to the Class 3 crown in 2018. Hairston holds offers to date from Howard and Navy. His receiving core with seniors Elijah Stokes (5-8, 175) and Jacob Gilbert (6-2, 190) as well as juniors Branson Leduc-Mattox (6-1, 165) and Jaylen Lide (5-9, 160) gives him a nice cast of playmakers.

Stokes is very elusive, earning 1st Team All-State honors at punt returner. Not only did he have a 50-yard pick-six vs. Martinsville, but he also had five catches for 72 yards in the regional semis against Abingdon. The point guard on the basketball team, Leduc-Mattox is equally lethal in the open field. Even though they break in a new running back in junior Donald Patterson (5-8, 160), defenses have to be concerned about Hairston's dual-threat skills and the players he can get the ball to in space.

Helping the run game develop are the likes of senior linemen Parker Hardy (6-1, 210), Jordan Garcia (5-11, 205) and Payton Rakes (5-8, 175) along with juniors Joshua Dawson (6-0, 260) and JaQuail Bradley (5-11, 235). Dawson is the lone new starter of that contingency, while Hardy earned 2nd Team All-Region and 1st Team All-District honors last year, doubling as a force at defensive end.

Defensively, Bassett managed to hold eight opponents to 14 points or less last year, so if they can duplicate that, they will be fine. Hardy is likely to slide back to linebacker, where they have a trio of juniors that are new starters in Patterson, Zycheus Hylton (5-10, 180) and Salvador Coca-Lobo (6-1, 220). Bradley, Garcia and senior Michael Clark (6-0, 270) will hold things down on the defensive line.

Johnson is very excited about his defensive backfield as it's made up of seasoned players with size and excellent ball skills to create turnovers through the air: Stokes, Leduc-Mattox, Lide, Gilbert and Hairston. They will depend heavily on that five-man rotation as they groom the defensive front, which will be smaller than some of their counterparts across the region and perhaps the Piedmont District.

The first two games on the docket could be tricky with Franklin County, featuring a running back that had 1986 yards and 25 TD's on the ground a season ago in Jahylen Lee, and a Liberty Christian team that was the Class 3 runner-up. Nonetheless, the talent and experience are in place for the Bengals to achieve double-digit victories for just the fourth time in 44 years.

Final Class 3 Rankings from 2021:

#1 - Phoebus (14-1)

#2 - Liberty Christian (13-1)

#3 - Abingdon (12-2)

#4 - Brookville (8-4)

#5 - York (11-2)

#6 - Brentsville District (11-3)

#7 - Heritage-Lynchburg (9-3)

#8 - Lord Botetourt (8-4)

#9 - Hopewell (6-4)

#10 - Christiansburg (10-2)

Matthew Hatfield serves as Publisher for VirginiaPreps.com, part of the Rivals.com Network. Check out Hatfield’s Twitter page for more sports related updates, and you can also read his work in the Suffolk News Herald. To contact Matthew, please e-mail hatfieldsports2k4@yahoo.com, and don’t forget to listen to him from 10 AM to Noon on 757 Saturday Sports Talk on ESPN Radio 94.1.