Published Dec 17, 2018
Final VHSL Top Ten Football Rankings for 2018
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Matthew Hatfield  •  VirginiaPreps
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The 2018 Virginia High School Football season has come and gone. Just two teams that captured State Championships last year repeated, but only one of the four schools pursuing the rare four-peat managed to pull off that feat.

Highland Springs joined Phoebus from earlier in the 2000's and Hampton during the 1990's as the lone programs in VHSL history to win four consecutive state titles on the gridiron. To win the Class 5 crown again, the Springers defeated Stone Bridge, which is now 1-7 in the title round and fell to Highland Springs for the third time in four years.

Another team from the Richmond area - Manchester - made some history of its own. Tom Hall's Lancers won their first ever state title, and in scoring 819 points over a perfect 15-0 season, tied the record for most points in a season set by the 1996 Hampton squad.

Woodgrove, which opened in 2010, won its first ever state title and denied Lake Taylor its third crown in seven years with a 38-33 triumph in the Class 4 Final. Meanwhile, the Class 3 Final saw Heritage-Lynchburg captured a State Championship for the first time since 2002, edging Phoebus 24-20 to keep the Phantoms from winning their eighth ring.

Graham was the only State Champ of the six this year to drop its opener and then win every game after that 38-14 loss at the hands of Bluefield from West Virginia. In fact, the G-Men won every one of its next 14 contests by double-figures.

Riverheads won its sixth state title and third in a row by handling Chilhowie 35-7 in a re-match of last year's title game at the Class 1 level.

We take a look at our Final Rankings for the season, plus you can see the playoff brackets for all six divisions below as well as where each team checked in at in our Preseason Top Tens in the charts...

See Final Playoff Brackets Here


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Class 6 Top Ten:
Dropped Out: Thomas Dale (9-3)
RankPreseasonSchoolRecord

1

3

Manchester

15-0

2

7

Freedom-PW

13-2

3

1

Westfield

13-1

4

8

Colonial Forge

11-1

5

6

Ocean Lakes

13-1

6

2

Oscar Smith

11-2

7

NR

Madison

10-3

8

NR

W.T. Woodson

11-2

9

NR

Hayfield

10-2

10

9

Cox

9-3

Class 5 Top Ten:
RankPreseasonSchoolRecord

1

1

Highland Springs

15-0

2

2

Stone Bridge

12-3

3

NR

Maury

12-2

4

4

Indian River

12-1

5

7

North Stafford

10-3

6

3

Broad Run

11-2

7

8

Henrico

10-2

8

6

Massaponax

11-2

9

10

Salem-VB

9-3

10

NR

L.C. Bird

9-3

Class 4 Top Ten:
Dropped Out: Salem (7-4)
RankPreseasonSchoolRecord

1

9

Woodgrove

11-2

2

3

Lake Taylor

13-2

3

7

Eastern View

13-1

4

NR

Blacksburg

13-1

5

6

Lafayette

11-1

6

NR

Louisa

11-1

7

2

Sherando

10-2

8

4

Dinwiddie

11-2

9

10

E.C. Glass

11-2

10

NR

Monacan

9-3

Class 3 Top Ten:
Dropped Out: Spotswood (9-2)
RankPreseasonSchoolRecord

1

4

Heritage-Lynchburg

14-1

2

3

Phoebus

13-2

3

1

Lord Botetourt

11-3

4

NR

Northside

11-2

5

5

Norcom

8-5

6

2

Hopewell

9-2

7

8

York

8-4

8

6

Brookville

8-4

9

NR

Abingdon

9-3

10

NR

Culpeper

9-5

Class 2 Top Ten:
RankPreseasonSchoolRecord

1

2

Graham

14-1

2

7

Goochland

14-1

3

4

East Rockingham

13-1

4

NR

Radford

12-2

5

3

Appomattox

11-2

6

1

Central-Woodstock

11-2

7

6

Glenvar

10-2

8

5

Poquoson

9-4

9

NR

Gretna

9-3

10

10

Ridgeview

10-2

Class 1 Top Ten:
Dropped Out: Franklin (9-2)
RankPreseasonSchoolRecord

1

1

Riverheads

13-1

2

2

Chilhowie

14-1

3

4

Galax

11-3

4

3

Essex

10-4

5

7

Patrick Henry-Glade Spring

11-2

6

NR

Northumberland

11-2

7

5

Narrows

10-3

8

NR

J.I. Burton

9-3

9

NR

West Point

8-4

10

8

Parry McCluer

7-5


Matthew Hatfield serves as Publisher for VirginiaPreps.com, part of the Rivals.com Network, and is a regular contributor to the ACC Sports Journal. 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 weeknights from 6-7 PM on The 757 at 6 as well as every Saturday at 10 AM to Noon on ESPN Radio 94.1.