TRIUMPHANT RETURN TO TODD STADIUM
Landstown knocks off Woodside in homecoming for Tommy Reamon
NEWPORT NEWS — Landstown made the trip back to Todd Stadium a happy one for its coach, Tommy Reamon. Producing just enough offense to supplement a defense that played well all night, the No. 6-seeded Eagles beat No. 3 Woodside 20-7 in the Region 6A quarterfinals.
“This is No. 4 on my list,” Reamon said of his favorite moments at Todd Stadium, which include big games playing for Carver High in the 1960s, and big games coaching Ferguson, Warwick, Gloucester and now Landstown since the early 1990s. “God bless these kids, they wanted the opportunity.”
The Eagles showed that from the start, controlling the ball much of the first half, then using a big defensive play to take a 14-0 lead into the locker room at halftime. The Eagles (7-4) drove 63 yards on eight plays for a touchdown after taking the opening kickoff.
Taeveon Lane was the Eagles’ running back of choice for most of the drive, moving the ball downfield with four carries good for 26 yards. Sophomore Carlton Winston finished the drive, making two nifty cuts on his 33-yard touchdown run that gave the Eagles (7-4) a 7-0 lead with 7:48 remaining in
the first quarter.
Landstown’s defense got off to a solid start as well, forcing Wolverines quarterback Tyler Thompson into an incompletion on fourth down on their first possession, then forcing them to punt on their second. They rode that momentum to a 54-yard touchdown drive.
Eagles quarterback Chris Price led the way to that touchdown, completing passes of 9 and 7 yards to Javil Painter, before connecting with Winston for 26 yards. Forced to scramble on third down at the Woodside 16, Price calmly lofted the ball to Brian Pederson for a touchdown that pulled the Eagles ahead 14-0 with 4:07 left in the first half.
Aided by two Landstown penalties of 15 yards each, and Bryce Phipps’ 12-yard run, the Wolverines quickly moved from their 35 to the Eagles’ 23 in a bid to cut the margin before halftime. But the drive ended for the Wolverines in the final seconds of the first half on fourth-and-3 at the Eagles’ 4, when Painter limited Shemar Holland to just 2 yards on a reception.
“That was tough,” Woodside coach Danny Dodson said. “I thought we had a good play called there, but our guy started to lose the ball and couldn’t get the extra something it took to get the first down.”
Reamon said, “That was critical. It was a momentum changer.”
The Wolverines moved the ball better in the second half, but would whiff on two more drives inside the Landstown 10. On the second of those, the Wolverines had a third-and-goal at the Eagles’ 6 when Thompson threw a pass to Kahleef Jimmerson. The ball bounced off of Jimmerson’s feet and into the hands of Landstown’s Luqman Haskett, who returned it 78 yards to the Woodside 22.
That pretty much sealed it for Landstown, which got a late 36-yard touchdown run from Winston, before Woodside (8-3) added a consolation score on Thompson’s 32-yard touchdown pass to Ricky Key in the final minute.
“I thought we had a good season,” said Dodson, whose team was missing two starting two-way linemen to injuries. “The kids we had out there played their tails off, but (Landstown) made it tough on us.”
Landstown advances to play perennial Class 6 state power Oscar Smith next week in the Region 6A semifinals.