After beating Spotswood, Amherst to host Harrisonburg in regional championship

Amherst (11-0) will host Harrisonburg this Friday in the Region III Division 4 championship match after knocking off Spotswood 53-14 in the semifinals. The Blue Streaks (10-1) defeated Turner Ashby 31-28 last Friday in the other semifinal.

These two teams met in 2008 Region III semifinals when the Lancers slipped past Harrisonburg 28-21. Anthony Rose rushed for 167 yards and two touchdowns. The longest score went for 81 yards the other was for 46 yards. Rose also threw a 46-yard, fourth-quarter, touchdown pass to Chris McDaniel that put Amherst up 28-14.

Harrisonburg will rely heavily on junior running back, Michael Holmes, who has put mythical numbers this year for the Blue Streaks, including a in which rushed for more than three hundred yards and eight touchdowns in a little over two quarters against R.E. Lee.

The Spotswood and Amherst players didn’t get off on the right foot Friday when the Lancers hosted the Trailblazers in the Region III, Division 4, semifinals.

Spotswood’s players gathered outside their locker room about 40 minutes before the game and tore down a couple of paper banners hung on a concrete wall behind the scoreboard while calling for Amherst to “bring it.”

The Lancers were still in their locker room but Amherst’s coach Cecil Phillips looked on and seemed amused by actions of the spirited bunch from Penn Laird.

The Lancers brought it, and mauled the Trailblazers 53-14.

“It’s good to get off to a good start in the playoffs,” Phillips said. “We are just going to go back to work on Monday and take care of ourselves. We took care of step one and we are on to step two now.”

The No. 1-seeded Lancers (11-0) will host No. 2 seed Harrisonburg (10-1) in the Region III, Division 4, championship game next Friday. The Blue Streaks knocked off Turner Ashby, 31-28, in the other semifinal.

“We got beat by a better team,” Trailblazers coach Eric Phillips said. “They just had too much speed. I’m sad that it’s over. I’m proud of the kids and there are a lot of seniors I’m saying goodbye to.

“There was just too much speed. It wasn’t an effort thing. It wasn’t a schematic thing. It was speed. Just too much speed for us to overcome. That is just a great football team over there.”

Amherst set the tempo from the very start. The Lancers took the opening kickoff and drove 57 yards on eight plays to take a 7-0 lead on Kirby Anderson’s 1-yard sneak just 3:11 into the game.

Amherst scored again with 3:11 left in the first quarter on a 34-yard touchdown run by Jamal Glover to go up 14-0.

The Lancers added a third score just 12 seconds into the second quarter on a 62-yard run by Anthony Rose. Anderson made it 22-0 when he ran in for the two-point conversion. Amherst extended its lead to 29-0 when Mario Vaughan broke lose for a 40-yard run into the end zone with 4:21 left in the half.

The Trailblazers (9-3) finally got on the scoreboard with a 52-yard drive that was capped by Chad Williams’ 15-yard touchdown pass to Kevin Jones, making the score 29-7 with 2:05 until the break.

But Amherst wasn’t content to take that lead into halftime. The Lancers used just 1:05 to answer Jones’ score. The Lancers went 53 yards in just three plays as Anderson threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Rose to put Amherst up 36-7 at halftime.

The Lancers continued to build on their lead in the third quarter. Their first two plays from scrimmage went for scores.

Vaughan scored his second touchdown on a 48-yard run. He finished the game with 140 rushing yards on just six carries. Glover scored his second touchdown on the other, a 93-yard run. He finished the game with 152 rushing yards on just eight carries.

“We got into a really good grove,” Phillips said. “We wanted to play a fast-tempo ballgame and our kids came out and really executed on that first drive and set the tempo early.”

Amherst’s ground game produced 441 yards and six scores on just 36 attempts. Spotswood finished the game with 83 rushing yards on 30 carries.

“Our defense has just been extremely physical all year and I don’t think they have been given enough credit,” Phillips said.

“All we ask for is runners and hitters (on defense), and we use that speed and aggression to make some big plays for us.”

Anderson was 3-of-4 passing for 70 yards. All three completions went to Rose.

Williams was 10 of 17 for 152 yards. Zach Wade did most of the damage for Spotswood, catching four passes for 111 yards.