LCA- Heritage pits Virginia’s #1 versus #2 in Class 3A in midseason Seminole District tilt
Williams Stadium, Lynchburg University, Lynchburg, VA – Heritage had Virginia’s 3A #1 team on the ropes opening up a 6-0 halftime lead. But the Bulldog’s put the ball in their Sophomore RB 8 Gideon Davidson’s hands in the second half and pulled out a hard fought 14-6 win at home. LCA Head Coach Frank Rocco spoke highly of the visiting Pioneers, “We respect Heritage and (Head) Coach Bradley. Year in and year out, they’re a great program. We’ve always used them as a measuring stick for our program.” Heritage measured up in the first half, DB/WR 23 Markus White picked off LCA QB 7 Joe Borchers in the end zone to kill one first half drive while adding a TD themselves. Heritage QB 9 HOV Bateman hit big TE 3 Terrell Washington on a 9-yard TD toss and run to go up 6-0 with 3:03 left in the first quarter. The extra point sailed wide. The Pioneer defense kept LCA in check in the first half holding RB/S 8 Davidson to 54 yards on 9 carries. Pioneer Coach Brad Bradley liked his defense’s efforts. “Our defense played great. Coach Ferris did a great job.” The second half was another matter. Davidson went for 65 yards on four of the Bulldog’s first five plays. The last a 32-yard blast down the left sideline in front of the LCA bench. The PAT by Ryan Pettit gave LCA the lead for good two minutes into the second half. Four minutes and some change later, Borchers faked a handoff to Davidson and hit his TE 44 Carson Meadows down the seam in the middle of the field for a 28-yard TD pass and run. That put LCA up 14-6. Heritage had a chance late, but came up short of a fourth and one at Bulldog’s ten based on the spot. “I’m proud of our guys. I do question that spot down there on fourth down. We’ll look at it on film, but it is what it is.”Heritage had one more chance late, but on fourth down LB 23 Sam O’Regan picked off Bateman’s toss over the middle and LCA was able to run out the clock. Coach Rocco summed it up for LCA, “Good the kids experienced a big game and luckily we came out on the good end.”
