Division 3 Region D Championship
Christiansburg starts fast, finishes with regional championship win over Lord Botetourt 34-7
Lord Botetourt High School, Daleville, VA – Size does matter, sometimes. It seemed to Friday night in the Region 3D Finals.In one of the only times this year that the Cavaliers from LB were outsized on the line of scrimmage, the visiting Blue Demons rushed for 295 yards and 4 touchdowns. Three of those were courtesy of Junior QB 4 Tanner Evans. The hard running signal caller finished the night with 118 yards on 21 carries. Evans has the respect of his head coach Alex Wilkens, “He’s a great kid, smart, tough as nails… a leader. He can play any position on the field.” Not to be outdone, his backfield mate, RB/LB 10 Curtis Altizer carried the ball 9 time for 115 yards and a score. Altizer set the early tone, refusing to go down, picking up additional yards after first contact. “We knew we had to be physical. They are a very good team,” said Altizer. His 53-yard TD run with 3:39 left in the first quarter started the scoring off for the visiting Blue Demons. Christiansburg’s defense was just as impressive holding the 11-2 Cavaliers to only 42 yards on 26 carries and one touchdown. That being a 1-yard run by Cav QB 7 Jakari Nicely early in the third quarter to make it a 21-7 game. But Evans ran for a 20-yard score and then threw a 3 yard TD pass to WR 3 Jay-Ron Thompson to complete the scoring. Coach Wilkens was happy to finally beat Botetourt. “When I got the job it was the emphasis six years ago. If we want to win, we have to go through them (Lord Botetourt). It starts in the weight room, and our kids bought into that. It’s year ‘round. It’s a model (and program) they’ve (Botetourt) developed and we have to aspire to be.” Christiansburg will now go on to face another regional power in Coach Brad Bradley’s 12-2 Heritage Pioneer team. Heritage avenged one of their regular season losses with a 22-17 victory over LCA at Williams Stadium at Liberty University. Wilkens went on to sum up the win, “I love our team, so proud of them. Our kids worked their tails off and they wanted this.” – Cap’n Crunch
