Looked like holding on almost every KG offensive play...
Phoebus 25 King George 13 FINAL
- Thread starter Phoebus Fan
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How many receiving yards did #1 and #4 have for KG. That’s the game in a nutshell.
It's so unfortunate that I'm reading so many officiating complaints. I agree the officials didn't have their best day today as I saw questionable calls both ways. However, what I witnessed today was one team dominating the line of scrimmage and imposing their will on the KG O-line disrupting and frustrating the offense. I saw some Phoebus LBs and safeties blasting anything in a white jersey attempting to catch a ball over the middle. I saw the Phoebus O-line wearing down the KG defensive front in the 2nd half (especially in the 4th when it was still a 13-12 game). Finally the biggest difference was KG's qb simply got outplayed by a freshman qb and Phoebus #2 was the best offensive player on the field! These were things that the players controlled and not the officials. So if you want to use the "Ref Excuse" that's fine, but you guys should be saluting a fine Foxes team that gave that program the greatest four year run in school history. I commend and salute what they have accomplished by reaching the state Semi-finals four years in a row. I may be wrong but I do believe the first was during the spring season in 2020 against Lake Taylor.
The penalties that were called were causing the King George quarterback to consistently keep throwing the ball out of bounds. That’s what I noticed from the Phoebus side of the field. The instances where our defensive ends were being held and penalties were not called gave the Foxes quarterback even a little extra time to see who on the sideline and which sideline in particular he wanted to throw the ball directly to because his really tall receivers were not always available as they were blocked by penalty flags. This was a repetitive and consistent occurrence. The Foxes run game was ineffective due to the penalties that were and were not called. The Phantom defense played no role in stopping the Foxes. It was the little, yellow flying flags. Otherwise with this being Phoebus first time winning King George beat themselves with the help of the flags. 🫤
My thing when it comes to officials is if they were equally bad on both sides. It's fair
The refs were abysmal, it seemed like they waited to see if they play was for positive yards before they threw the flag. With that said the even bigger issue for KG was the QB. He wasn’t prepared or ready right from jump street. They feasted this year on 50/50 balls and he didn’t even give his dawgs on the outside a chance to make a play for him. His over throws and balls out of bounds constantly told me he was playing scared to make a mistake. Of course the coaches could have been on him all week to play conservative and not put the ball in harms way but that’s not how they won all those games. Also the refs didn’t have anything to do with all the delay of game penalties that’s on the coaches. Maybe the game was too big for them to.
Does anybody have the passing stats for the game? It’s sad it’s a state semifinals game and the stats just aren’t available.
Now this is keeping it honest. I love how you pointed out the biggest issue being the qb play from the start of the game. It’s like he saw the defense in person finally and got scared. He was throwing passes out of bounds with no pressure on him yet.
Ok i just hope it’s not one of those sites i go to and it automatically tells me i have to pay. I just want the stats
Wow definitely did not think White for KG had 6 catches let alone 72 yards. I have to watch the game again. Didn’t even think the QB had 100 yards passing.
It was crazy watch. I thought in the 1st half and even about midway through the 3rd, their oline gave him plenty of time to make accurate throws. But it was no way they would hold up all game.
I didn't have a chance to really give a more detailed post about the game yesterday, but I thought I would take some time to do so here.
Congratulations to Phoebus. You are extremely entertaining to watch and have some tremendous talent. I'm wishing you the best of luck next week against Salem even though I'll be cheering on Salem and sitting on their side.
For Phoebus, they clearly had the better overall talent and; therefore, overall team. They also had the better coaching. They made big plays when they needed to. The better team won yesterday.
For King George, I've alluded to this multiple times before. Coaching really hurt them. Vern Lunsford is the Battlefield's version of the Commonwealth's Eric Ludden. Not elite. Can't win the big one. Working extremely late into the offensive play clock which led to the offense looking confused at times combined with the quarterback not properly keying in on the back judge for the play clock countdown. That was unfathomable and completely frustrating to watch. And the game had no flow to it, so it was already difficult to watch at times anyways.
In addition, King George only needed to run a quarterback sneak twice under center to end the First Half. They didn't. They ran out of shotgun and gave Phoebus a safety with a chance to take the lead going into Halftime. You have to take the snap under center there and sneak it. Uncalled for. Poor coaching there along with the two Sideline Warnings they received (first is zero yards, second is five yards...if they had gotten a third, it would have been 15 yards). Again, poor coaching.
Not converting late on 1st and Goal from the 3 to keep King George in the game was ridiculous and unacceptable. Also, there was zero sense of urgency on that drive.
King George's quarterback was exposed. Yes, pressure did play a part, but most of his throws sailed on him even without pressure. He made life difficult on his own receivers even when he did have time to throw.
The Phoebus Front was massive and quick and King George did not make the adjustments at Halftime in order to secure the lead. Phoebus made the adjustments and dominated the Second Half.
Now, the elephant in the room. Officiating was trash. It was garbage. It was BS. Was it enough to change who won the game? Probably not. But I've never, ever seen an officiating crew pick up six flags. I've gone multiple seasons in a row not even seeing an official pick up a flag while attending double-digit games per season. It was terrible and the worst, one-sided officiating I've seen in a game since there were split crews allowed in the regional rounds in 1995.
Because of the officiating, King George had to play behind the sticks more often than not. They were forced into passing situations earlier on many occasions that they didn't want to. They were unable to establish any type of ground game even though they were going up against a superior defensive line. 12/125 in accepted penalties for King George & 6/70 in accepted penalties for Phoebus in case anyone wanted to know.
Going forward, it's imperative for the VHSL to go to neutral association crews in the playoffs; even at the regional level (abandon regional autonomy for crying out loud). Even last week at King George, it would have been nice if the Northern Virginia Association would have come down to officiate the game. It would have been interesting to see how that would have affected things.
On the lighter side, I do like Phoebus' PA Announcer. If anyone knows him, please send my regards. He was smooth and easy an on the ears and gave the pertinent information needed for the game. In addition, please tell the handful of Phoebus fans who decided to sit on the King George side to still cheer for their team that everyone sitting around them were getting Contact Highs due to their presence.
Congratulations to Phoebus. You are extremely entertaining to watch and have some tremendous talent. I'm wishing you the best of luck next week against Salem even though I'll be cheering on Salem and sitting on their side.
For Phoebus, they clearly had the better overall talent and; therefore, overall team. They also had the better coaching. They made big plays when they needed to. The better team won yesterday.
For King George, I've alluded to this multiple times before. Coaching really hurt them. Vern Lunsford is the Battlefield's version of the Commonwealth's Eric Ludden. Not elite. Can't win the big one. Working extremely late into the offensive play clock which led to the offense looking confused at times combined with the quarterback not properly keying in on the back judge for the play clock countdown. That was unfathomable and completely frustrating to watch. And the game had no flow to it, so it was already difficult to watch at times anyways.
In addition, King George only needed to run a quarterback sneak twice under center to end the First Half. They didn't. They ran out of shotgun and gave Phoebus a safety with a chance to take the lead going into Halftime. You have to take the snap under center there and sneak it. Uncalled for. Poor coaching there along with the two Sideline Warnings they received (first is zero yards, second is five yards...if they had gotten a third, it would have been 15 yards). Again, poor coaching.
Not converting late on 1st and Goal from the 3 to keep King George in the game was ridiculous and unacceptable. Also, there was zero sense of urgency on that drive.
King George's quarterback was exposed. Yes, pressure did play a part, but most of his throws sailed on him even without pressure. He made life difficult on his own receivers even when he did have time to throw.
The Phoebus Front was massive and quick and King George did not make the adjustments at Halftime in order to secure the lead. Phoebus made the adjustments and dominated the Second Half.
Now, the elephant in the room. Officiating was trash. It was garbage. It was BS. Was it enough to change who won the game? Probably not. But I've never, ever seen an officiating crew pick up six flags. I've gone multiple seasons in a row not even seeing an official pick up a flag while attending double-digit games per season. It was terrible and the worst, one-sided officiating I've seen in a game since there were split crews allowed in the regional rounds in 1995.
Because of the officiating, King George had to play behind the sticks more often than not. They were forced into passing situations earlier on many occasions that they didn't want to. They were unable to establish any type of ground game even though they were going up against a superior defensive line. 12/125 in accepted penalties for King George & 6/70 in accepted penalties for Phoebus in case anyone wanted to know.
Going forward, it's imperative for the VHSL to go to neutral association crews in the playoffs; even at the regional level (abandon regional autonomy for crying out loud). Even last week at King George, it would have been nice if the Northern Virginia Association would have come down to officiate the game. It would have been interesting to see how that would have affected things.
On the lighter side, I do like Phoebus' PA Announcer. If anyone knows him, please send my regards. He was smooth and easy an on the ears and gave the pertinent information needed for the game. In addition, please tell the handful of Phoebus fans who decided to sit on the King George side to still cheer for their team that everyone sitting around them were getting Contact Highs due to their presence.
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Yep. Great example is the drive after Phoebus fumble. A good qb would’ve hit 11 or gotten close to hitting him for the TD. Yea the qb was forced out the pocket but he had a clear path to throw and legit threw the ball way out of bounds and nowhere near 11. I wish you could’ve seen the shock in Phoebus stands watching how off the QB was. With how bad Phoebus was 1st half if that QB was any good KG could’ve potentially put up an offensive TD and been up more at half.
Go watch the film #75 of King George held on more plays than were called. He literally was holding so much Reddick complained to the refs nonstop first half…which explains why the refs were locked in on it. Now let’s talk about the one sided officiating that called a clear touchdown down at the 1 when Phoebus QB was clearly in the end zone. Or what about the missed block in the back call on #11 of KG on that punt return? Oh yeah that flag was picked up. Just be real KG got flat out dominated and if it wasn’t for special teams mistakes it would’ve been worse. No doubt in my mind Phoebus runs away with that game if PSD doesn’t muff that punt.
Side note King George punter and kicker were A1. Definitely were superior to Phoebus in the special teams department.
I never downplayed Phoebus' domination. Not sure you how you misconstrued my comments. I said the better overall team won even without the penalty situation and I especially gave major kudos to Phoebus' Defensive Front.
Here are the stats and the write-up from The FL-S:
HAMPTON — As rain fell steadily during halftime of Saturday’s Class 4 state semifinal, the King George football team found itself locked out of the visitor’s locker room at Darling Stadium.
Within a few minutes, security personnel arrived with a key. But a bigger access problem remained: the Foxes’ usually prolific offense couldn’t figure out how to get into the end zone.
Phoebus held King George to 119 total yards and got three rushing touchdowns from diminutive junior Davion Roberts to grind out a 25-13 victory. The Phantoms (14-0) will face Salem in next Saturday’s Class 4 state championship game at Liberty University.
A King George passing game that thrives on rhythm saw its tempo repeatedly disrupted by an unrelenting Phobeus pass rush. Senior quarterback Jack Pearson absorbed four sacks, and a majority of his 19 incompletions came as the direct result of duress.
“Their pass rush was definitely elite — we knew that coming in,” Foxes head coach Vern Lunsford said. “We had our moments, just couldn’t sustain things and then got behind the chains.”
Despite their offensive struggles, the Foxes (13-1) actually went into halftime nursing a one-point advantage. A bizarre sequence saw both teams exchange field goals and safeties in rapid succession during the first half, with Phoebus pulling ahead 10-5 early in the second quarter.
Senior Roget Walker supplied King George’s lone touchdown — as well as its only lead — when he alertly corralled a short punt with a running start and didn’t slow until he’d scored from 50 yards out.
It was an unfamiliar position for the Phantoms, who’d allowed a grand total of 31 points entering Saturday’s game and hadn’t trailed once along the way.
“Those boys believed in it,” Phoebus coach Jeremy Blunt said. “They never faltered. They believed in it and that locker room came through.”
In particular, the Foxes found themselves vexed by the 5-foot-7 Davis, who seemed to vanish amid a sea of tacklers only to reappear time and time again in the vicinity of the first-down marker. His 8-yard plunge with 8:08 remaining gave Phoebus a two-score lead.
“He squats 650 pounds,” said Blunt of Davis, who muscled his way to 126 yards on 21 carries.
Any momentum the Foxes generated offensively invariably and quickly ground to a halt with penalties. King George was flagged 12 times for 125 yards, infractions that ran the gamut from delay of game to holding to sideline violations.
“We really just beat ourselves,” said Virginia Tech commit Chanz Wiggins, who temporarily sustained his team’s hopes with a tipped-ball interception in the third quarter.
The emotions that surfaced on King George’s side of the field following the final whistle were telling. Tears welled over a loss — and kept flowing over the end of an era.
In less than a month, Wiggins and fellow standout Mehkai White will graduate, leaving behind a legacy punctuated by the Region 4B championship they claimed in front of a home crowd last week. Their respective departures for the Football Bowl Subdivision will reshape the landscape of Fredericksburg-area prep football.
“It’s been a great ride with the fellas,” said White, who finished his final high school game with six receptions for 72 yards. “I’m going to miss them a lot. We had a lot of fun times, and we stuck through with each other.”
High school football: Phoebus defeats King George in the VHSL Class 4 state semifinals
Joey LoMonacoHAMPTON — As rain fell steadily during halftime of Saturday’s Class 4 state semifinal, the King George football team found itself locked out of the visitor’s locker room at Darling Stadium.
Within a few minutes, security personnel arrived with a key. But a bigger access problem remained: the Foxes’ usually prolific offense couldn’t figure out how to get into the end zone.
Phoebus held King George to 119 total yards and got three rushing touchdowns from diminutive junior Davion Roberts to grind out a 25-13 victory. The Phantoms (14-0) will face Salem in next Saturday’s Class 4 state championship game at Liberty University.
A King George passing game that thrives on rhythm saw its tempo repeatedly disrupted by an unrelenting Phobeus pass rush. Senior quarterback Jack Pearson absorbed four sacks, and a majority of his 19 incompletions came as the direct result of duress.
“Their pass rush was definitely elite — we knew that coming in,” Foxes head coach Vern Lunsford said. “We had our moments, just couldn’t sustain things and then got behind the chains.”
Despite their offensive struggles, the Foxes (13-1) actually went into halftime nursing a one-point advantage. A bizarre sequence saw both teams exchange field goals and safeties in rapid succession during the first half, with Phoebus pulling ahead 10-5 early in the second quarter.
Senior Roget Walker supplied King George’s lone touchdown — as well as its only lead — when he alertly corralled a short punt with a running start and didn’t slow until he’d scored from 50 yards out.
It was an unfamiliar position for the Phantoms, who’d allowed a grand total of 31 points entering Saturday’s game and hadn’t trailed once along the way.
“Those boys believed in it,” Phoebus coach Jeremy Blunt said. “They never faltered. They believed in it and that locker room came through.”
In particular, the Foxes found themselves vexed by the 5-foot-7 Davis, who seemed to vanish amid a sea of tacklers only to reappear time and time again in the vicinity of the first-down marker. His 8-yard plunge with 8:08 remaining gave Phoebus a two-score lead.
“He squats 650 pounds,” said Blunt of Davis, who muscled his way to 126 yards on 21 carries.
Any momentum the Foxes generated offensively invariably and quickly ground to a halt with penalties. King George was flagged 12 times for 125 yards, infractions that ran the gamut from delay of game to holding to sideline violations.
“We really just beat ourselves,” said Virginia Tech commit Chanz Wiggins, who temporarily sustained his team’s hopes with a tipped-ball interception in the third quarter.
The emotions that surfaced on King George’s side of the field following the final whistle were telling. Tears welled over a loss — and kept flowing over the end of an era.
In less than a month, Wiggins and fellow standout Mehkai White will graduate, leaving behind a legacy punctuated by the Region 4B championship they claimed in front of a home crowd last week. Their respective departures for the Football Bowl Subdivision will reshape the landscape of Fredericksburg-area prep football.
“It’s been a great ride with the fellas,” said White, who finished his final high school game with six receptions for 72 yards. “I’m going to miss them a lot. We had a lot of fun times, and we stuck through with each other.”
| King George | 5 | 8 | 0 | 0 | — | 13 |
| Phoebus | 7 | 5 | 0 | 13 | — | 25 |
SCORING SUMMARY
First quarter
Ph-Davion Roberts 17-yard run (Farriss Knight kick)
KG-Max Lipinski 30-yard field goal
KG-safety, ball carrier tackled in end zone<
Second quarter
Ph-Knight 22-yard field goal
KG-Roget Walker 50-yard punt return (Mekhai White pass from Jack Pearson).
Fourth quarter
Ph-Roberts 18-yard run (Run fail).
Ph-Roberts 8-yard run (Knight kick).
TEAM STATISTICS
| KG | Ph | |
| First downs | 9 | 16 |
| Rushes-yards | 13-(-1) | 30-191 |
| Passing yards | 119 | 146 |
| Comp.-Att.-Int. | 9-28-0 | 9-17-1 |
| Fumbles-lost | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Punts-Avg. | 4-38.5 | 2-33 |
| Penalties-yards | 12-125 | 6-70 |
One of the more absurd posts I’ve ever seen. Guy took over a program that had done nothing and has two regional titles, multiple kids playing in college and hasn’t lost a regular season game in 4 years. Elite coach
Phoebus was a great team. Well deserving of winning the game. Refs were abysmal and it played a role, but the biggest factor was the edge player from Phoebus and KG’s QB seeing ghosts.
I hope Phoebus wins it all. The little number 0 plays with a ton of competitive fire.
How is it absurd? Heaven forbid you actually address the context of my post where I pointed out specifics. That would be too difficult for you I guess.
And it's easy to go undefeated in an extremely weak district overall that has won just one state title in 25 years. And I say this as a long-time Battlefield District loyalist.
And there was nothing elite about the coaching that I saw yesterday. And if you go back to posts of mine going back to last season, you will see that there were noticeable coaching issues which I thought prevented King George from taking the next step.
But you seem to be a typical, "He SaId SoMeThInG nEgAtIvE aBoUt My TeAm So I'm GoInG tO wHiNe AbOuT iT!" type of fan, so I'm not shocked.
I agree. KG'a coach has done a tremendous job with that program. Win or lose, he can coach and has the KG program moving in the right direction.
I responded to you earlier in the season about the shots you took at KG staff and here you go again. This is ridiculous man and you seem to definitely have an issue with someone on staff. They have lost 4 games in 4 years ( all teams been in the state championship) and 2 region titles in the hardest region and they can’t coach? Phoebus bullied them all game in the trenches and somehow they were up 13-12 in the 4th with no offense but that’s not coaching ? Please man this is enough. King George had no business keeping that game close because of the trenches. I saw them against Varnia that o line was getting whooped then but the coaches made it work . If you saw their o/d line size you would be shocked on how they are even competing in games. Nobody knew who King Gorge was before that Head Coach got there and now look at that program.
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That's interesting that a player complaining of being held would cause an official to "lock" in on it. To me that says something about the integrity of the entire officiating crew itself. If the game was played in KG with opposite results would there be a different opinion of the officiating crew? It's understood that holding could be called on EVERY play whether it be Little league high school college or professional football. Yes Phoebus dominated the lines of scrimmage no question there, it would have been nice for the ref to have been mic'd up so there could have been an explanation for why six? flags were thrown then waved off. 12 penalties for KG that were accepted 6 penalties for Phoebus that were accepted. 6 picked up and lord knows how many were thrown and were declined. Like I said earlier was looking for a classic high school football game that both BOTH TEAMS were cheated of because of piss poor officiating. Hell who knows all those flags may have been the reason KG stayed as close as they did with the way their QB was playing.
"...the shots I took at the King George staff,,," What are you doing? Threatening me because I have an opinion? They weren't "shots" at all. I didn't just arbitrarily state that I had concerns or issues with the coaching without providing reasoning behind this. Stop being an ignorant "fan". No need to pout like a four year old that doesn't get their way just because I have a different opinion about something or can actually analyze something which is too deep for you to comprehend.
And thanks for making my point about the fact that you're one of these ignorant fans that get worked up because someone else said something that could be construed as negative about your team.
You called the man Mr.Luden of the battlefield and that’s not a shot at the Head Coach? Can’t get in done in big games and clearly he has won some big games ? . Like come on man. KG is not my team I don’t root for them at all. Ignorant one is you. Grow up it’s ridiculous at this point
just to correct a couple of things. King George wasn't a program that never had success before the current coach. In 1995 (granted not too recently) they played in the AA Division 3 State Championship game. Also, there was a post indicating the Battlefield hadn't won a state championship in over 20 years and that's not true. James Monroe beat Brookville 50-46 in 2008 for the AA Division 3 state championship. James Monroe and Brookville also played in back-to- back state championship games in 2011 and 2012. Brookville won both of those. It's true the Battlefield hasn't had a team play for a state championship since the shift to 1A-6A in 2013 - so the last 10 years. Just looking at the VHSL records book and Massaponax played in the 2003 AA Division 5 state championship game so they've made it that far too. Have a good one!
No need to to correct, KG hadn’t done anything in 20 years. Ponax also played that state game without player of the year Nat Jackson. That take was one of the more absurd posts I’ve seen.
Both KG & Massaponax head coaches are phenomenal coaches. It would probably be better to have said “in-game coaches” because that is the specific critique of both. Clearly both coaches are quite good just based on the consistency of their respective programs.
They reached the State-Semis in 2 of the last 4 years. 2020 and 2023. They lost to Varina in Round 1 in 2021 and to Dinwiddie in Round 3 in 2022.
I will say this and then stay out of this. This coaching staff got everything they could out of the players they had. No offense to any of the players on defense, but it is a remarkably great job that the most points they gave up all year was 29 to Dinwiddie. The offensive coaches got everything they could out of that qb and o-line. That’s all you can ask for from a coach, that they get the best out of their players and the KG staff does. Oh, and the officials didn’t affect the outcome. The better team on Saturday won, no excuses.
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I stated that the Battlefield had won one state championship in the last 25 years. I was correct in this. Prior to James Monroe winning the title in 2008, Spotsylvania was the last Battlefield team to win a state title in 1997.
There is nothing to "correct" on your end even though you want to try to twist things to meet your narrative.
I wasn't trying to twist anything. Sorry that I didn't remember you post correctly. Have a good one!
Do you believe they can survive the up and coming graduations and have another outstanding season? What I mean is have they turned the program around permanently? It is a shame their offense did not perform well but I thought Phoebus would be the best defense they ever faced. The height differences between the receivers of King George, and the Phoebus defensive backs, did not matter because of the aggression of the Phantom defense, and the fact that King George was not prepare for it.
I can also add in 2001 when Lafayette won it all we played KG down here in the playoffs and it was a barn burner that we won when KG went for 2 on the late TD snd the win and missed by several inches.
I've seen one or two great James Monroe vs Lafayette games awhile back. They were regional playoff games. I remember going to the stadium on Richmond Road, I think it was. it was a really nice stadium! Have a good one!
Just off Richmond Road...not a big fan of it, personally...plain old turf field...no character.
