If you’ve followed the headlines in Virginia high school football this season, then you probably know all about the Manchester Lancers’ prolific offense.
The Lancers have scored at least 47 points in each of their first 12 games this season, and they’ve racked up a whopping 700 points total. If you’re doing the math correctly, that’s an average of 58.3 points per game.
However, in Friday night’s Region 6B final at Colonial Forge, it was Manchester’s defense that set the tone. The Lancers limited the Eagles to just 241 yards of total offense and made two big stops inside the 3-yard line in the first half to set the stage for a 21-7 victory.
The win gives Manchester (13-0) sweet revenge over a Forge team that’s ended its season in the third round of the playoffs in each of the past two seasons. It also keeps the Lancers’ dream of a first-ever state championship in school history alive.
“It feels awesome,” Manchester coach Tom Hall said of the Lancers’ success this season. “This is my twentieth year here as head coach, and we’ve never been able to do what this team has done this year.”
Colonial Forge (11-1) drove all the way to the Manchester 1-yard line on its first possession of the game, and appeared ready to take the early lead. But on fourth-and-goal, quarterback Madden Lowe was stonewalled by Penn State commit Hakeem Beamon and the Lancers’ defensive front.
After KJ McNeil’s 7-yard touchdown run gave Manchester a 7-0 lead at the end of the first quarter, Forge put together a pass-heavy drive that began at its own 25. The march featured a fantastic diving catch by Paten Rodier for 12 yards and a textbook jump ball that Josh Sarratt pulled down for 30 yards. Elijah Sarratt’s 17-yard catch-and-run on a screen pass ultimately gave the Eagles a first-and-goal at the Lancers’ 3 with an opportunity to even the score.
But again, the Lancers’ defense bowed up in the shadow of its own goal line. On third-and-goal from the 3, defensive back Kwame Dehaney intercepted Lowe’s pass in the back of the end zone, deflating the Eagles for a second time.
Prior to the interception, Manchester had stuffed Forge on consecutive run plays. Beamon expressed satisfaction with how well the Lancers’ defense played.
“We owned the line tonight,” he said. “That was the plan coming in—dominate up front.”
On the next play, Manchester quarterback Brendon Clark broke free for a 75-yard run down to the Forge 25. A few plays later, Clark connected with Collin Harding in the back corner of the end zone for a 17-yard score to put the Lancers up 14-0 with 5:24 left in the first half.
Clark hurt the Eagles with both his arm and his legs. He completed 11 of 23 passes for 223 yards and a touchdown, and had 16 carries for a game-high 137 yards rushing. If there was anything to nitpick in his performance, it was the interception he threw early in the fourth quarter that led directly to Lowe’s 5-yard pass to Rodier for the Eagles’ only touchdown.
Even so, it was the first interception the Notre Dame commit has thrown all season.
“It was bound to happen eventually,” Clark said with a grin.
Hall said it was nice to finally be able to beat Forge after Manchester’s struggles against them in the past.
“We finally got over the hump,” he said.
The Lancers will travel to play Ocean Lakes in next Saturday’s Class 6 state semifinals. The Dolphins (13-0) snapped Oscar Smith’s streak of three consecutive trips to the state title game with a 21-7 victory in Friday’s Region 6A title game.
