While many of the eyes across the Beach District were on spotlight matchups with Ocean Lakes hosting Cox in a re-match of last year's playoffs and Landstown visiting Salem in a rivalry matchup that has produced close finishes in recent meetings, another game in the city had its fair share of storylines. That was at Kempsville High School, where the Chiefs used in a new Head Coach, as did their opponent, the Princess Anne Cavaliers.

Kempsville's Daryl Cherry looked to break the 56-game losing skid that was the longest in the state to begin the season and second longest in VHSL history. Meanwhile, James Yeager had his debut at Princess Anne, trying to bring the Cavaliers back to where they are competing at a high level like they did during the early 2000's.

For Princess Anne though, the season started off right after beating Kempsville 54-21. Yeager's squad led by 40 points in the second half, which featured two mammoth touchdown runs - one by QB Michael Newell (5 yards) and another by fellow sophomore, RB Zaakir Brown (85 yards).

Couple these touchdowns with the three scored by 2021 stud prospect Tony Grimes, another by Brown and two more, one by air and one by ground for Newell, it made for quite a show for the PA fans to enjoy.

After rain halted the two planned scrimmages for Princess Anne, the Cavs came out with no experience outside of their own practices, leading some to doubt them.

“We went out and did what we wanted to do,” Yeager said. “We focused on ourselves. We saw a lot of people out there saying that we weren't going to come out and get this W, but we try not to focus on what other people think about us and we just want to go out there and take care of business.”

It was a very business-like performance as Kempsville never scored consecutive touchdowns to mount a serious comeback and break their losing skid.

Zaakir Brown rushed for 183 yards when it was all said and done, along with the aforementioned two touchdowns. The 5-foot-10, 185-pound speedester nearly hit his pregame goal of 200, giving much of the credit to his teammates afterwards.

“I feel like my line did a good job. They blocked for me and opened up holes for me to hit,” Brown said. “

Brown ripped off the 85-yard run and talked about how he got that one done, saying, “I saw daylight and I just took it because it was fourth down and I had to be a playmaker.”

A bright spot on offense for Kempsville was the play of junior QB Caleb Roby, who completed 15 of his 23 passes for 235 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception, thrown to none other than Tony Grimes himself. Two of those scoring receptions were hauled in by senior Jovon Mims, their leading receiver from the 2018 campaign.

The pick by Grimes was originally returned for a touchdown, but was called back after a personal foul. Nonetheless, Grimes and his teammates were not discouraged by any small miscues they might've had and found ways to follow them up with a big play.

“We practiced hard through all the offseason and we had a chip on our shoulder, so we came out here and played as a team,” stated Grimes, rated the nation's top corner in the Class of 2021 by Rivals.com. “We didn’t have all of our players in at the end of the game because we were cramping, but we worked together as a team, competed and won.”

The cramps were an issue throughout the game, yet they reared their face the most in the third quarter with multiple Cavs going down, sometimes in succession.

“We know we are going to have to fight hard because pretty much everyone is playing both ways,” Yeager commented, acknowledging the depth concerns with a roster size of just 32 listed varsity players, only five of which are seniors.

“We have to go out and keep fighting. I told them at halftime you have to suck it up; this is game one, deal with it, and if you can’t do it in game one, it’s going to be a really long season.”

Even with the comfortable win, Yeager is hoping his players know there 's still room for improvement. Being in tip-top condition for the rigors the rest of the Beach District schedule will be imperative as the Cavs try to make a playoff run in Region 5A this year.

“[We] would cramp up, stretch out, try to hydrate and get in for a few plays. I think that sent the message, them seeing how not properly hydrating and what not could affect it because we could have put up 70 or 80 points if our starters had played the whole game,” Yeager explained.

Princess Anne will host Salem next week, who beat Landstown 28-0 to open their season, while Kempsville will visit Cox, which lost a hard-fought 31-27 battle with reigning Region 6A Champ Ocean Lakes.