Lake Taylor, Churchland, Lafayette win region semifinals
Class 4 Region A
Lake Taylor 40, Warwick 0
Quarterback Jeff Foster accounted for three touchdowns and Chuck Fisher and Tarreon Washington-Jacobs paced the rushing attack as the host Titans shook off some rust Saturday afternoon in their first game since March 19.
Top-seeded Lake Taylor (5-0) won its fifth consecutive game over Warwick and will host Churchland in next week’s region championship game.
Foster threw a 72-yard TD pass and rushed for two more scores to put the Titans ahead 30-0 after three quarters. Fisher and Washington-Jacobs both had more than 100 yards rushing, and Washington-Jacobs scored on a 19-yard run. Churchland 38, Warhill 12
The second-seeded Truckers (4-1) pulled away from an eightpoint halftime lead to bounce back from last week’s regular-season finale loss to Maury.
Churchland led 14-6 at halftime but scored 16 points in the third quarter to surge in front 30-6.
The Truckers play at Lake Taylor in next week’s region championship game in what will be the Eastern District rivals’ first clash this season.
No. 3 seed Warhill finished 4-2.
Class 3 Region A Lafayette 35, New Kent 0
Lafayette earned a spot in the region championship game with a victory Saturday at Wanner Stadium.
The Rams (6-0) will host Phoebus (4-0) in the region final at 7 p.m. Friday at Wanner.
Lafayette beat New Kent (4-3) by 35-13 in their regular-season meeting two weeks ago. As in the earlier matchup, the Rams had to stave off several New Kent offensive forays into their territory.
“New Kent is bigger than us and ran the ball right at us,” Lafayette coach Andy Linn said. “The dam didn’t break.
“Bryce Copeland, Lawrence Tyler and Andy Anderson had to go both ways today, but did a good job on the defensive line. Sam Boyer (a linebacker) played well as always defensively, and (quarterback) Luke Hanson made some good throws after taking some big hits on New Kent’s blitz.”
Hanson threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Michael Green, while Bryce Cupp completed a 25-yard pass to Boyer on a halfback option. Miguel Reel ran for two touchdowns, both from 7 yards, and DeMarcus Lawrence ran for a 3-yard touchdown
Class 2 Region A Poquoson 16, Nottoway 12
No. 4 seed Poquoson moved a step closer to its first state football playoff berth since 2017 with a road win over No. 1 Nottoway in a semifinal Friday in Crewe.
Sophomore quarterback Jaxson Weissman’s 1-yard touchdown run with 5:18 remaining in the fourth quarter was the difference. The Islanders (3-2) will play at No. 3 Amelia County (3-3) next week in the region final with a state semifinal berth on the line.
Poquoson struck first, taking a 7-0 lead on Weissman’s 52-yard pass to Kai Baker with 6:50 to play in the first quarter. Nottoway pulled back to within 7-6 on Karon Price’s 1-yard touchdown run with 1:58 left in the first quarter, but the 2-point conversion try failed.
The Islanders stopped the Cougars twice inside the red zone following a bad punt and bad punt snap.
“Our players faced some adversity in the first half with a couple of turnovers, but they continued to battle,” Poquoson coach Elliott Duty said. “The defense, led by Karon Smith, played great all night and we found a way to make a couple of big (offensive) plays in the second half.”
But the Cougars took advantage of a Poquoson fumble, scoring on a 9-yard run by Willie Lawson III to take a 12-7 lead with 4:30 to play in the first half.
Smith returned the subsequent kickoff 65 yards to the Nottoway 10. The Cougars held, but Ethan Sneddon kicked a 22-yard field goal to pull Poquoson to within 12-10 at halftime.
Weissman completed two fourth-down passes in the Islanders’ fourth-quarter touchdown drive, one for 20 yards to Gunnar Phillips and another for 8 yards to Kai Baker. Nate Wilhite had runs of 16 and 8 yards on the drive.