Although Friday night's first playoff round did not go well for four of our six participating teams, the entire district, even including last-place Waynesboro, deserves credit for providing us with one of the most interesting seasons we have had in years. At one time or another, the top six teams all looked like they might be championship material.
All six started off with impressive showings in their first few non-district games. Then when district play began it looked like we had a different surprise and/or a different front-runner every week.
Take for example the first district game of the year when Fort Defiance pounced on Riverheads early and beat the Gladiators for the first time in decades. At that point, the Indians looked like the real deal and left the Gladiators facing an uphill battle. Unfortunately the injury to Armentrout the next week compromised their season and they never recovered.
Two weeks later, Staunton squeaked out a win over Stuarts Draft in a game that later became more significant than it seemed at the time. Buffalo Gap picked up its first district win the same night and Riverheads came within an eyelash of dropping to 0-2 but held off Wilson.
The following week, in a game that should have tipped us off, Staunton traveled to Wilson and shut out the Hornets. SD got back on the winning track that same weekend as they handed Buffalo Gap its first district loss.
The next week was "whatever happened to home field advantage" week as Riverheads won at Staunton, SD won at FD, and Wilson won at BG. At that point, Staunton and SD were looking like the best bets with Riverheads and Wilson still hanging around.
The following week, RHS held off a Bison comeback and Wilson squeezed past Fort. That eliminated the Indians from title contention and led to mathematical speculation (at least on my part!) that we could end up with a five-way tie for the district title.
Staunton and Wilson held up their part of the bargain the next week by winning but SD brought a screeching halt to Riverheads' title quest with that epic 42-14 win. Those game results created a situation under which the five-way tie was still a long shot but it was realistically going to come down to Staunton and SD.
The following week was that weird one when three teams (Wilson, SD, and BG) all had the weekend off. Staunton and FD collided at Gypsy Hill and The Storm pulled off a late rally, which essentially gave them the district title because they were certainly going to beat Waynesboro the next week, so even if SD won at Wilson, Staunton was still going to get the title on the tie-breaker.
As it turned out, Wilson upended the Draft on the final night, which handed Staunton the title outright and left Wilson, RHS and SD all tied for second, with FD fifth and BG sixth.
Altogether it was the most competitive season in years and even winless Waynesboro has reason for optimism. They played hard all season and also had a feisty little JV team. They may still need a year or so but things are looking up.
Next year should be quite interesting for a variety of reasons. BG won the JV championship and that will help them climb the ladder. SD will have Baylor Graber back. Riverheads was relatively young this year but will have to replace both the kicker and quarterback. Wilson will have Podgorski back and some other quality players. Not sure about Fort or Staunton but you can bet they will both be competitive.
Now we do get the two newcomers next year and one of them, Alleghany, just may come in looking for blood. They are unbeaten this season and that quarterback is only a junior. So if he has any kind of support around him, they may be the favorite next year. That just means the rest of us will have to gang up on them and show them who is boss!
Meanwhile, best wishes to RHS and BG as each one hits the road Friday for their next playoff test. Even if they each fall by the wayside, this will still remain as one of our most memorable seasons ever.
