The Lake Taylor Titans (Norfolk, VA)

ventured into Suffolk on Saturday afternoon for the Third Annual Peanut City

Shootout 7 x 7 passing tournament at King's Fork High School and flexed their

muscles, beating Friendly from Maryland 32-25 in overtime to capture the

Championship.

"It's a good feeling for the kids,"

declared Lake Taylor Head Football Coach Hank

Sawyer. "The whole 7-on-7

concept is to work on throwing the ball around, playing defense, camaraderie,

getting some kids to bond during the off-season and it also keeps them out of

trouble. We've been in this

Championship three years in a row, so it really feels good to win it."

In the semifinal round, Lake Taylor defeated

Bethel 37-17. Class of 2011

cornerback normal">Rijo Walker, who intercepted 11 passes a season ago, served as one

of the Bruins' top playmakers throughout the day and had an interception in

the semifinal. But normal">Kevin Swofford made an interception early for the Titans, followed

later by a pair of picks from Joseph

Salone. Lake Taylor was able to

pull away from there. The Titans

also featured one of the best linebacker cores in the region with Mike

Privott, normal">Boggie McCray and Travis

Williams, a Class of 2010 prospect that should definitely be among the

state's top players over the next two seasons as he showed the ability to make

plays almost effortlessly.

"This year we're better than last

year's team. We're more focused

and we've got the leadership to go with it," said Privott, who's committed

to Louisville and has led the fierce Lake Taylor defense over the past three

seasons. "We never had a lot of

depth before. We had depth at

certain positions, but now we've now got depth overall, even linemen.

This year we've got eight defensive backs that can play safety, corner,

rover or anything we need to play. We

feel we've got the speed, the power, the coaching staff and everything's put

together."

Friendly, coached by John

Morgan, beat a speedy and talented Green Run squad 27-7 in the other

semifinal. Morgan coached alongside Larry

Archie, the current Head Football Coach at Norcom, when the two were at

Bowie State together. Green Run

didn't disappoint by any means though as they defeated Oscar Smith, the

reigning Eastern Region Division 6 Champions, twice on Saturday, and rallied

from 19-0 down to defeat Great Bridge to reach the semifinal round.

The Championship game proved to be a

back-and-forth battle. Friendly

struck first when Sherrod Baltimore connected

with Gerald Bledsoe for the

contest's first touchdown. Class

of 2011 prospect Tavon Taylor stood

out for Friendly as another name to definitely watch for the future.

Lake Taylor answered that opening score with a touchdown by Trevor

Adams from quarterback Jarred Battle,

who Sawyer described as "fantastic," especially it seemed as the afternoon

progressed. Adams scored three

touchdowns in the game, including one that tied it at 25-apice with 29 seconds

remaining. normal">Mario Rowson had the game-winning touchdown by making an incredible

leaping grab in the end zone.

"We've been working hard so we can win

the big game, and this is the first step of winning the big game," Privott

said.

Featuring many of the top teams and players

from the Commonwealth as well as gifted athletes outside the state, the Peanut

City Shootout proved to be a success once again.

The event spanned over eight hours, and while the heat was exhausting and

bothersome at times, fans that came out really got to see some of the finest

High School Football around.

"It was a great turnout and we had a very

good group of our guys here working to help make it run real smooth.

Some of the teams out of town did well, but also our own teams, like Lake

Taylor and others, also did really well. There's

an unbelievable amount of talent. Friendly

did a great job, they're coming back, bringing some people back, and we're

trying to get some more of the outside talent in for everybody to showcase,"

said King's Fork Athletic Director Randy

Jessee.

"This is a new experience for me, being a

first-year AD after being a coach for 20 years, and we just wanted to make it as

good as we had it last year because it has been growing.

We expect it to grow even better and for it to be the best on the east

coast. We'd like to thank VirginiaPreps.com for covering it for us and giving us that publicity that these teams

deserve," Jessee also added.