The Oscar Smith Tigers extended their winning streak to 91 in the Southeastern District by besting Chesapeake rival Grassfield 26-21 on the road Friday night.
With the win, Oscar Smith concluded a 9-1 regular season and wrapped up a #1 seed for the 6A-South Region playoffs, the portion consisting of Conferences 1 and 2. Leading the way to yet another Tigers win was four-year Shon Mitchell, who's now 48-5 in his four years as the starting quarterback.
Mitchell completed 19 of 30 passes for a season-high 380 yards and four touchdowns, all to lesser known targets in Kenny Etheridge (8Rec. 121Yds.), Thomas Woodhouse (3Rec. 90Yds. 2TD's) and Khalid Wilson (1Rec. 6Yds.) as Grassfield's defense concentrated on covering primary options Khalik Perry and Cam'Ron Kelly. The William & Mary commit also continues to climb the Virginia High School League's career passing charts, in hot pursuit of the state's top spot for completions, passing yards and touchdowns.
For the season, Mitchell has now completed 156 of 256 passes for 2305 yards and 20 touchdowns. That puts him 268 yards and five touchdowns away from matching the VHSL records held by former Tigers quarterback Phillip Sims, who led the program to its first state title in 2008. He's also 22 completions away from tying Briar Woods grad Trace McSorley, now of Penn State, for that Virginia career record.
Despite being out-gained 276-124 in the first half, Grassfield took the lead on Oscar Smith 14-13 on quarterback Justice Bigbie's 35-yard touchdown launch on third-and-long to ODU commit Austin Wood, followed by a successful extra point. The Tigers then scored the next 13 points to go up double-figures.
Grassfield would pull closer on another Bigbie touchdown pass, of 30 yards, to fellow senior Kharron Gilliam. Oscar Smith needed a pair of defensive stops keep the the Grizzlies at bay and drop them to 8-2 overall.
There were several defensive standouts for the Tigers, headlined by junior linebacker Keshon Artis, senior linebacker and senior defensive back Branden Delbridge. Artis had a game-high 10 total tackles, nine of the solo variety, with three stops for loss. Jones, Troy Mott and Dekireon Turner recorded seven total tackles apiece with Mott making two sacks. Delbridge registered four of the ten pass deflections the Tigers had.
For the Grizzlies in defeat, running back Darius Hagans gained 115 yards on 19 carries. It the the 7th time Hagans eclipsed the 100-yard barrier this season. Linebacker Seth Dobbs, who has set a school-record with seven fumble recoveries, was in on seven tackles and had an interception that was the game's lone turnover.
Next up for Oscar Smith, the Tigers play host to #8 seed Western Branch (6-4), which beat Indian River 17-10 in their regular season finale. The Tigers beat Western Branch 35-17 during the regular season, scoring 28 unanswered points in the second half. Meanwhile, Grassfield visits #2 seed Cox (9-1), which finished alone atop the Beach District for the first time in school history.
Matthew Hatfield has covered football and basketball since 2004 for VirginiaPreps.com, part of the Rivals.com Network, and is a staff writer for Tar Heel Illustrated. 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 every Saturday at 10 AM on ESPN Radio 94.1, plus watch him on the Cox 11 Sports Report.
