Freedom repeats as Class 6 champs
The Freedom Eagles of Woodbridge outlasted Highland Springs 42-34 Saturday at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville to take their second consecutive Class 6 football championship.
Freedom (14-0) built a 28-0 lead in the second quarter and withstood numerous comebacks by the Richmond-area Springers (13-2), who won last year’s Class 5 title before being elevated in the latest VHSL realignment. Coach
Darryl Overton’s Eagles extended their winning streak to 29 games.
Kameron Courtney’s 14-yard run, Jachai Jackson-Hughes’ 38-yard interception return and dashes of 30 and 72 yards by Jeff Overton, the head coach’s nephew, gave Freedom a stunning 28-0 lead with 8:43 left in the second quarter.
The Springers pulled to 28-13 midway through the second quarter on two touchdowns in a span of 1:48 — Maryland recruit Khristian Martin’s 50-yard TD pass to Noah
Jenkins, then Jakyre Henley’s 74-yard punt return.
But Freedom never surrendered the lead behind quarterback Tristan Evans-Trujillo, who broke former Oscar Smith star Phillip Sims’ VHSL touchdown-pass record last week by throwing his 120th.
Carleton “JuJu” Preston, a Clemson commit, made a one-handed catch for a 53-yard touchdown in the third quarter.
Martin’s 24-yard TD run with 4:30 to go in the game cut the deficit to 42-34, but Freedom all but ran the clock out on its next drive. The Springers didn’t get the ball back until there were fewer than 30 seconds to go.
Class 2
Radford 39, Riverheads 21:
Quarterback Landen Clark led the Bobcats (15-0) to their first football state championship in 51 years with a victory over the Gladiators (13-2) of Staunton at Salem City Stadium.
Riverheads had won the past seven crowns in Class 1 before moving up this year. The Gladiators twice led in the first half, but Radford scored three second-quarter touchdowns to go ahead 25-14 at halftime.
The Gladiators cut the deficit to 25-21 when Cayden Cook-Cash, Riverheads’ all-time touchdown leader, scored from the 2 with 5:23 left in the third quarter to complete a 77-yard drive. It was his third TD of the day, but the Gladiators never scored again.