| Advertisement |
|
|
The other Region IV, Division Four matchup this week was also a rematch between district foes. Heritage made short work of Amherst County during the regular season, posting a 27 to nothing shutout at City Stadium. This week the scene shifted a few miles north to Lancer Stadium in Amherst.
The game was scoreless until the 2nd quarter when Javontae Parrish handed off to I'shantii Rosser. He danced in on the touchdown to put Heritage on the board 6 to nothing, following a missed extra point. Amherst was trying to find answer. The Lancers turned to Sidney Sandidge who was picking up good yardage for a first down. Later in that same drive, Kyle Edwards passed to Lonnie Rose. Rose found the endzone and Amherst was up 7 to 6 at that point.
But it didn't stay that way for long. Parrish called his own number on the keeper. He zigged and zagged to endzone for the Pioneers making it 12 to 7.
Heritage went on to beat Amherst by that final five point margin, and the Pioneers are regional champs in Brad Bradley's first season as head coach. They'll play Bradley's alma mater, Salem in next week's state semifinals.
Brad Bradley, Heritage Head Coach: "As a football coach, you just dream about teams like this. These kids have a lot of guts, they played really well tonight and they played together. We had our chances to quit believeing in ourselves and put our heads down, but we never did that. We played together."
Cecil Phillips, Amherst County Head Coach: "We knew we were going to have to play our very best game on the offensive side of the ball to give ouselves a chance to score. We knew this was going to be one of those old fashioned sloberknockers coming in to this ball game. Hats off to Heritage for executing when they needed to."