JV Action:
Varina 7
Highland Springs 20

Can’t call them “The School By The Airport” and lose like that, what you say @edwinanderson2nd 😂😂

Amelia County Raiders
7
Final
Lunenburg Central Chargers
27

After having their game winning field goal attempt blocked at the end of their game last week against Colonial Heights, Caroline is desperate for the win this week to get back into the hunt for a playoff spot.

Will they win, or will Courtland dash their hopes?

Please take down if in violation. We recently chatted with the assistant director for athletics for football in our latest podcast episode. You can listen or watch the episode. If you guys have any questions that you would like to have us ask, please leave a comment, and we will for sure ask him the next time he comes on. We talked about the ratings, future alignment, and postseason play. We're just a few guys who like to talk sports! We are definitely not Pat McAfee. lol.


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Alright Matt, I’m not sure if Pizzzzza is still able to post this week, so we are going to be looking for you to carry the torch.

You know the peanut gallery is going to be on pins and needles waiting to find out every score so they can see if their team got that vital extra rider point or two.

Which games are you covering this week?

Deep Run Wildcats
10
Final
Mills Godwin Eagles
17

Life Christian Eagles
14
Final
Hargrave Military Tigers
13

Henrico Hen Warriors
19
Final
Patrick Henry Ashland Patriots
14

Greetings from Darling Stadium on this Halloween Night, where the Hampton Crabbers (6-3) play host to the Bethel Bruins (5-3) in a key Peninsula District matchup.

We'll have updates here tonight + on Twitter or 'X' @hatfieldsports

Below, you can see our Prediction & Snapshot Preview on the game...


Bethel (5-3) at Hampton (6-3) . . . This Halloween matchup will have some playoff implications for each with the Crabbers trying to secure the No. 2 seed in Region 4A and the Bruins aiming to be no worse than the No. 6 seed in Region 5B. Tailback Amari Pryear (1077 yards, 18 TD’s rushing) has raised his level of playing during Bethel’s four-game winning streak. His o-line with Seveon Gilbert, Xavier Tisdale, Caleb Smith, TJ Ricks and Ethan Wiggins are creating nice running room. Sophomores at QB in Derek Fisher and Jayden Short at WR give them two more weapons on offense to keep defenses honest.

To deny Bethel of its best season since finishing 8-3 overall in 2012, the Crabbers will need to tackle a lot better on defense than they did in last week’s 49-0 loss to Warwick. One game prior, sophomore QB Marcus Chapman connected 11 of 15 passes for 215 yards and 5 TD’s for Hampton in its 40-point triumph over Menchville. Junior WR/DB Casey Lassiter could be an x-factor in this one for the Crabbers on either side of the ball. Lassiter had three takeaways against Heritage, including a pick-six, and he found the end zone four times vs. Denbigh.

Matt Hatfield Says – Bethel 23-21
Coach Ed Young Says – Hampton 23-21

And just like that, only 2 regular season games left. There's a handful on Thur so get your picks in early!

Douglas Freeman @ Hanover
Henrico @ Patrick Henry Ash (Thur)
Huguenot @ Midlothian
Grafton @ Jamestown
Warhill @ Tabb
Bethel @ Hampton (Thur)
Caroline @ Courtland
Riverbend (C6) @ Brooke Point (C6)
N Stafford (C6) @ Mountain View (C6)
Thomas Jefferson R (C3) @ Armstrong (C3)
Lake Taylor (C3) @ IC Norcom (C3)
Colonial Heights (C3) @ Petersburg (C3)
Bruton (C2) @ Poquoson (C2)
Warwick @ Phoebus*
Highland Springs @ Varina*

Woodgrove @ Tuscarora (Thur 4:00)*
Amherst Co @ Jefferson Forest*
EC Glass @ Heritage Lyn
Orange Co @ Monticello
Heritage LC @ Rock Ridge (Thur)
Lightridge (C5) @ Riverside (C5) (Thur)
Stone Bridge (C5) @ Briar Woods (C5) (Thur)
Brentsville Dist (C3) @ Skyline (C3)
Meridian (C3) @ Warren Co (C3)

*GOW 2 pts each

High School Football Predictions Battle: 2024 Regular Season Totals

Matthew Hatfield – 184-28 (86.8%)
Coach Ed Young – 177-35 (83.5%)

A 22-2 week for Hatfield with only losses on Bayside over Kellam and Granby slipping by Norcom increased the lead over Coach Young, who went 20-4. Ed missed on Cox beating Salem, Oscar Smith defeating King’s Fork as well as Booker T. Washington topping Manor and Heritage of Newport News prevailing over Gloucester.


Action for Thursday 10/31/24:

Kecoughtan (0-9) at Heritage-Newport News (2-7) . . . While this will be the final game of the season for a Warriors team that has scored just 18 points all season, Heritage can actually find themselves in the playoffs potentially in Region 3A with a victory, despite allowing 34.8 points per game on the season. Kecoughtan leads the all-time series 14-13, but fell to the Hurricanes by a count of 34-7 last year. The Canes got two rushing scores and a pick-six in last week’s 21-14 win over Gloucester.

Matt Hatfield Says – Heritage-NN 27-9
Coach Ed Young Says – Heritage-NN 30-6




Bethel (5-3) at Hampton (6-3) . . . This Halloween matchup will have some playoff implications for each with the Crabbers trying to secure the No. 2 seed in Region 4A and the Bruins aiming to be no worse than the No. 6 seed in Region 5B. Tailback Amari Pryear (1077 yards, 18 TD’s rushing) has raised his level of playing during Bethel’s four-game winning streak. His o-line with Seveon Gilbert, Xavier Tisdale, Caleb Smith, TJ Ricks and Ethan Wiggins are creating nice running room. Sophomores at QB in Derek Fisher and Jayden Short at WR give them two more weapons on offense to keep defenses honest.

To deny Bethel of its best season since finishing 8-3 overall in 2012, the Crabbers will need to tackle a lot better on defense than they did in last week’s 49-0 loss to Warwick. One game prior, sophomore QB Marcus Chapman connected 11 of 15 passes for 215 yards and 5 TD’s for Hampton in its 40-point triumph over Menchville. Junior WR/DB Casey Lassiter could be an x-factor in this one for the Crabbers on either side of the ball. Lassiter had three takeaways against Heritage, including a pick-six, and he found the end zone four times vs. Denbigh.

Matt Hatfield Says – Bethel 23-21
Coach Ed Young Says – Hampton 23-21

These last 3 weeks are going to be absolute madness. Huguenot will win out but they need both Varina & Dinwiddie to lose in order to obtain the 1 seed I think. I have no idea how things will play out if Varina and Dinwiddie both win out / or one loses I know someone can help me out with that.
A lot of great football coming the next 3 weeks with huge seeding implications:
Eastern View v King George
Highland Springs v Varina
Matoaca v Dinwiddie
Highland Springs v Hanover

Starting a separate thread for discussion on the new change and how it affects our contest.

24-20 Final Score as the Bobcats improve to 6-3 and we finish with Carroll County. If we beat them, a 7-3 finish will be a remarkable job for Coach Crist and staff considering what we lost and the youth on our team. Glenvar is the 2C favorites and Gretna is good and Floyd is tough and Appo has improved, but so has Radford. I didnt think we had a chance to win the region after the GW early season loss, but I actually think we do now. Glenvar is the favorites, but Radford has a real chance and may not be one year away to be a 2C contender as many thought including myself. A great win for the Bobcats tonight.

UPDATE: I have been out of town for four days without the ability to check this thread. I just noticed I made a transcription error on the Stone Bridge at Briar Woods game. It SHOULD have been Briar Woods (-13).
Since five players have already submitted picks I am fairly confident everyone will go with Stone Bridge so I am not going to update it now - everyone will almost certainly get a win for this game. Sorry for the error.

Picks need to be in by 7:00 pm on Thursday. Games this week are either on Thursday or Saturday. Several of the games below will have a big impact on the playoff seedings.

Garfield @ Patriot (-24) (THU)
Stone Bridge @ Briar Woods (-31) (THU)
Alexandria City @ Robinson (-13)
West Springfield @ Fairfax (-13)
Lake Braddock (-21) @ South County
Centreville (-3) @ South Lakes
Westfield (-28) @ Chantilly
Marshall (-7) @ Yorktown
Washington-Liberty (-6) @ Langley
Wakefield @ McLean (-3)

Does anybody know if they’ve switched to 6 teams with the top 2 seeds getting byes. Sports plug 757 is reporting this but i never heard this change

The Junior Gladiators got the win they needed tonight to stay in contention for the JV title game at the end of the season, but it was not easy as they had to cover an onside kick with less than a minute to go to preserve a 20-14 victory over the Little Giants, whom I believe were winless coming into the game.

Waynesboro scored first and last in the game, but RHS put together three touchdowns in between to earn the victory. In fact, when Joel Maybush zipped across the goal line from about 10 yards out with under two minutes left in the game to make it 20-6, Gladiator fans thought they could finally relax. But the feisty Little Giants came down the field and scored on a touchdown pass with around 35 seconds left to close to within one score. Riverheads was then able to fall on the final kick.

The Gladiators got their usual strong rushing game from Rylan Payne, whom I believe scored the first two touchdowns. Maybush and Sean Miller contributed to the rushing attack with Maybush adding the Big Red's two-point conversion after their second TD.

Waynesboro took the opening kickoff and scored on just half a dozen plays as Number 10 (did not catch the name) exploded up the middle to score from about 38 yards out. Riverheads then stopped them on the two point conversion.

The Gladiators then calmly drove for about 70 yards for their first TD. The Maybush conversion put them ahead for good at 8-6. If there was a turning point it came early in the second quarter. WHS had marched into Riverheads territory in an effort to re-take the lead. They were inside or close to the red zone when an errant snap on fourth down sailed into the backfield and Riverheads recovered it.

The Gladiators then used up most of the remainder of the second quarter to score their second TD, which came with about 2:40 left before the break. The Big Red had a golden opportunity to pad the lead when Waynesboro fumbled the kickoff and Riverheads recovered. However the Gladiators were not able to manage the clock well enough to score again.

The defenses took over in the second half and for a while it appeared that the 14-6 halftime score might be the final. Waynesboro had several chances to get back in the game, but had some trouble with penalties, especially during one bizarre sequence in which they were flagged for delay of game on two consecutive plays. That chain of events gave RHS the chance it needed to drive for the clinching touchdown.

After Riverheads made it 20-6, Waynesboro put on a show to get back in it. The Gladiators had experienced trouble all night long with the Giants quarterback (Lopez maybe?) He had completed a pass here and there but he proved to be quite the elusive runner and the Gladiators were almost never able to sack him.

On that final drive, he ran all over the backfield and completed a couple of desperation passes. The home team's final score was not exactly a Commanders-style Hail Mary, but it was an impressive enough play for this level, and showed that the Giants never quit. He also passed for the two-point conversion and if they had managed to recover the onside kick, those final few seconds could have been interesting.

With the win, the Gladiators will wait and see how their season ends. They had a rained-out game with Wilson back in late September, which may or may not be re-scheduled. As for the JV title game, my understanding is that the Gladiators will play Buffalo Gap for the title, if the Bison knock off Fort Defiance next week. But with Riverheads having only one loss in district play, it may be that the pairing is already set.

Whatever happens and whoever ends up playing in it, that championship game will be on Monday the 11th and will be played on the Waynesboro field. Meanwhile the RHS varsity team will host Waynesboro Friday night and then have a much-needed bye to heal up some wounded warriors before the Region 2-B playoffs begin on the 15th.

THE RVA SPORTS BREAKDOWN:​

VHSL Football Region Standings and Analysis For Week 9​

CLASS 1, REGION A:

1) RAPPAHANNOCK (8-0)* 23.75
2) ESSEX (7-1)* 20.25
3) NORTHAMPTON (6-2)* 19.625
4) WESTMORELAND (6-2)* 19.375
5) NORTHUMBERLAND (4-3)* 16.714
6) MIDDLESEX (4-3) 15.429 (nine-game schedule)
7) WEST POINT (3-5) 14.0
8) KING & QUEEN (4-4) 13.0
---
9) LANCASTER (2-6) 11.875

ANALYSIS: The cleanest of our area regions, we have five teams in, Middlesex on the verge. If Lancaster doesn't stun Essex Friday night, coupled with a King & Queen Central win over Middlesex, we'd have our eight playoff teams clinched before Week 11.

OTHER CLASS 1 REGIONS (State Semifinals: 1A vs. 1B; 1C vs. 1D):

REGION 1B: 1) Altavista 24.5; 2) Brunswick 19.5; 3) Buffalo Gap 17.778; 4) Sussex Central 15.375
REGION 1C: 1) Bath Co. 21.143; 2) George Wythe-W 20.889; 3) Grayson County 17.714; 4) Narrows 16.857
REGION 1D: 1) Rye Cove 23.25; 2) Holston 20.375; 3) Eastside 20.25; 4) Honaker 18.625




Posted by robwitham at 11:44 PM

1. Graham (8-0). 25.500
Graham has Tazewell and Richlands left and most definitely should win both and finish (10-0) locking up one seed I have at around 26.800.
2. Union (6-2). 23.875
Union has Abingdon and Battle left and I think they win both though Abingdon could be close game. Have them finishing at 2 at around 25.400.
3. Ridgeview (7-2). 21.000
Ridgeview only has Gate City left I have them winning. Have them finishing in 3 spot at around 23.200.
4. Lebanon (7-2). 20.111
Lebanon only has Tazewell left and should win and have them finishing at 4 around 21.900.
5. Virginia (5-3). 19.875
Virginia has John Marshall and Marion left and I think they win both finishing at 5 around 20.900.
6. Gate City (5-3). 18.625
Gate City has Central and Ridgeview left and I have them beating Central and losing to Ridgeview. Have them finishing at 6 around 19.500.
7. Lee (4-4). 17.500
Lee has Battle and Abingdon and have them beating Battle and losing to Abingdon. That will put them at 7 around 18.400.
8. Tazewell (4-4). 16.625
Tazewell has Graham and Lebanon left and I think they lose both putting them in 8 and final playoff spot at around 17.500.
9. Central (2-6). 13.500
Central has Gate City and Grundy left and I think they lose both and finish in 10 around 13.900.
10. Richlands (1-7). 12.875
Richlands has Marion and Graham left and have them beating Marion and losing to Graham. Have them passing Central and finishing 9 at around 14.500.
11. Battle (0-8) 11.625
Battle has Lee and Union left and have them losing both finishing in 11 at 12.700.
12. Marion (0-8). 11.500
Marion has Richlands and Virginia left and have them losing both finishing last in 12 at 11.700.

Here's my predicting matchups.
8 Tazewell @ 1 Graham
7 Lee @ 2 Union
6 Gate City @ 3 Ridgeview
5 Virginia @ 4 Lebanon

Rye Cove 14
Chilhowie 0
End of 1st Quarter

Football Finals:
JV 23, Collegiate 21
8th Grade 30, Collegiate 0
7th Grade 34, Collegiate 26
*7th Grade (pictured) trailed 26-12 in the middle of the fourth quarter and rallied for the win, finishing the season 6-0
!#StCVAFB

First, the weather next Friday and Saturday is interesting, AND a concern. The lower temperature will definitely be a much appreciated improvement. But, there is a growing concern of significant rain and storms by weeks end.

For me, the premier game will be Phoebus at Highland Springs. Regardless of the outcome, we should learn a lot about the potential dominance of these two powerhouse teams.

After a long drive, George Wythe goes into Altavista for a game of what is two of the best teams in Class 1.

Matoaca opens their season at 1-0 Warhill. This is a clash of two teams that have been getting closer to that championship level for several years now. Matoaca plans to repay Warhill for the loss they absorbed last year.

The answer Alex is: “What is the Battle of Chester?” Two teams, LCBird and Thomas Dale, that defend their turf like two junk yard dogs. To say they don’t care for each other would be like saying the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s were best friends. This will be a war. It will be, as it always is, a sellout and people will be turned away at the gate.

Amherst opening their season at GW has my interest. I hope for Wikki and the Amherst faithful that I am wrong, but I saw a strong powerful Eagles team last week. Forget their score at Dinwiddie, they are going to win 8 or 9 games this regular season. Amherst had better bring their A game. And I don’t know anything about the Amherst linemen, but I can tell you GW has got some beef on theirs. #70 must go 350 to 370?

Staunton River at JF might answer a question for me. Is SR back in good form of was MV just that bad last week? And what of JF?

Does another William, (Byrd this week), lay a 90 point shellacking on Hidden Valley?

And I’ll stop with this one. Charles City makes the long but beautiful trip across the Bay, almost to Maryland, to take on Arcadia. This is a winnable game for CC. Arcadia lost to Windsor last week, and Windsor has struggled for years just to win a game now and then. And the Lord knows, those boys, and that Charles City community, could sure use a win.

There are a ton more games that have my interest, but I just picked out a few to talk about. How about you? Anything pique your interest for this coming week?

Burgess resigns as Harrisonburg High boys basketball coach​

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - After nine seasons as the Harrisonburg High School boys basketball coach, Don Burgess is stepping down.

Burgess tells WHSV’s Connor Burgan the decision is an effort to spend more time with his family. Burgess will remain at Harrisonburg High School working as an administrator.

A former player at Harrisonburg from 1986 to 1990, Burgess played under legendary head coach Roger Bergey. He played college basketball at Radford. Following his playing career, Burgess had coaching stints at Central Florida, Coastal Carolina, High Point, Virginia Military Institute, and Bridgewater College. Burgess made the decision to return to his alma mater as a teacher and coach shortly after his time at Bridgewater.

This past season, Burgess helped lead Harrisonburg to a 16-10 record, which included a trip to the VHSL Region 5D Semifinals.