Division Five Championship Rewind
For the
first time since 1966, a Norfolk city school has captured a football
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state championship, as the Lake Taylor Titans beat the Stone Bridge
Bulldogs 20-14 at Scott Stadium on the grounds of the University of
Virgina.
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hspace="10" vspace="10">The Titans carried a 14-0
lead into halftime, then scored first in the
second half to take a 20-0 lead before the Northern Region champion
Bulldogs stormed back with two scores of their own to cut the lead to
one touchdown in the fourth quarter.
Late in the contest, Stone Bridge drove into the Lake Taylor red zone
but, with 20 seconds remaining, a blitzing Brandon Moore
stripped the ball carrier near the line of scrimmage, where
teammate Jamel Spellman fell on the loose pigskin to secure the
Division Five state championship for the Eastern Region Titans who
finished the season with a perfect 15-0 mark.
"We were hitting them and we were aggressive," said Lake Taylor head
coach Hank Sawyer. "They were taking some hits and kept
coming back. When the ball popped out, we had two or three
guys scrambling for it, and I sprinted on down the field because I knew
we were State Championship. It was just an awesome, unreal,
unbelievable feeling."
VirginiaPreps.com's coverage of the game:
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href="http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.471518096217757.92113.100000787114156&type=1"
target="_blank">See Rod Johnson's photo feature of
the contest with 115 images
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href="http://virginiapreps.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1446672"
target="_blank">See Matthew Hatfield's Live Game
Blog
href="http://virginiapreps.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=2533&tid=160770881&mid=160770881&sid=914&style=2"
target="_blank">See Tom Garrett's video package
with 4 minutes of highlights
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href="http://vmedia.rivals.com/uploads/914/1339676.wmv"
target="_blank">Stone Bridge post-game press conference
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href="http://vmedia.rivals.com/uploads/914/1339684.wmv"
target="_blank">Lake Taylor post-game press conference
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href="http://vmedia.rivals.com/uploads/914/1339959.pdf"
target="_blank">Official Box Score from STATVA
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hspace="10" vspace="10"> On
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style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Offensive Player
of the Game: Lake Taylor QB Delmon Williams
The junior
quarterback and All-Eastern Region First Team selection for the Titans
connected on 13 of 15 passes for 160 yards, two touchdowns and no
interceptions in leading Lake Taylor to its first-ever state
title. Williams completed all nine of his passes in the first
half. Perhaps his best moment of the game didn't come with his arm,
but rather on the move: He was able to use his legs to keep a
play that looked like a sure sack alive, turning it into an 11-yard
first down in the fourth quarter with Stone Bridge trying to rally.
"I thought that was a big play and the best defense against a Stone
Bridge is for you to be on offense," said Lake Taylor Head Football
Coach Hank Sawyer on the flip play by Williams, escaping pressure
from two defenders, including Jon Allen for a completion of
11 yards to Brandon 'Pork Chop' Moore.
"I always get on him to try to show emotion, but I guess that's a good
thing not to show any emotion so the other team can't see what he's
thinking. He can make all the throws and he made them today,
the guys caught them and it was just a team effort. As big as
that team was, we went against an All-American today, Gatorade State
Player of the Year, and the line held him off long enough for Delmon to
make the throws."
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hspace="10" vspace="10">
style="font-weight: bold;">Defensive Player of the
Game: Lake Taylor LB Jamel Spellman
The co-Eastern
District Defensive Player of the Year, Spellman is the guy that makes
all the calls defensively for the Titans from his middle linebacker
position and a definite senior leader for Lake Taylor. He finished with
13 tackles, eight solo stops, a sack, and recovered the fumble to seal
the deal with 20 seconds remaining and
Stone Bridge driving for a potential game-winning touchdown.
"In the last time-out they called, Spellman and Pork Chop kept saying
let's hang in there and let's keep doing what we're doing. We've got
them Coach," said Sawyer in the post-game press conference.
Regarding the game-sealing play, Spellman said, "Our goal was to key
the fullback. When I seen him to go to our right, which is
their left, I sprinted over there as fast as I can. I tried
to make the tackle, saw the ball pop up and I just ran for it and dove."
"Our defense plays together. No matter how many people you've
got in the backfield, we're going to come. Whoever's got the
ball, they're going to get hit," said Spellman regarding the 2012 Lake
Taylor defense.
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hspace="10" vspace="10">
style="font-weight: bold;">Game-changing Play:
A third-and-a-mile
Delmon Williams pump-fake for a 68-yard
touchdown to Jakale Pinkney allowed the Titans to draw first blood,
taking a
7-0 lead with 2:45 to go in the first half. This was an especially
important
play because Lake Taylor hadn't moved the ball against Stone Bridge up
to that
point. After getting a couple of first downs, the bad snap that set up
the
third-and-long looked like it might doom the Titans to another punt.
Yet, this game-changing
play not only put the Titans on the board, but it also swung all the
momentum
to Lake Taylor.
the very
next possession, Stone Bridge tried to punt out of a normal offensive
("quick
kick"-type) formation instead of dropping Burns deep, and the result
was a
blocked kick that gave Lake Taylor the ball deep inside Stone Bridge
territory.
The Titans quickly cashed in again with another touchdown pass, this
time from
Williams to Nhyre Quinerly, giving Lake Taylor a two-score lead at the
break in
a game that had been a major defensive battle up.
To