Facing William Monroe for the first time in 34 years, the Central-Lunenburg Chargers made their trip to Stanardsville a victorious one, beating the host Dragons 49-13 to improve their record to 2-0 overall on the season.

“We played well, both offense and defense, and made some big plays. We don’t take wins for granted in Lunenburg now,” declared Chargers coach Will Thomas, whose team opens at 2-0 for the fourth time in five years. “We caused some turnovers here and there, and we blocked a kick. I love a good blocked field goal and you can’t beat a scoop and score.”

That kick, blocked by Ameer Hicks, was scooped up by teammate Conner Buchanan, nearly going the other way with a score. While he didn’t find the end zone on that play, plenty of Chargers did as they ran the ball 45 times for 488 yards and seven touchdowns.

That included a trio of Lunenburg players going over 100 yards rushing with junior QB Chad Mattox (10 rushes for 152 yards and a TD), junior running back Jalin Freeman (15 rushes for 102 yards and 2 TD’s) and freshman Zamantae Hendricks (8 rushes for 106 yards and a TD), who goes by the nickname of Smiley.

“I think when he was in the fourth grade he had a tattoo that said smiley on his arm and I guess it stuck. Maybe it was in the sixth grade when he got that tattoo, I don’t know,” revealed Thomas of Hendricks.

“Smiley Hendricks had a really good game. We put him at wing (back) this week and that’s a little bit more of his thing.” 

Freeman also saw action for the first time since the team’s first scrimmage. He had been nursing an ankle injury.

“It was good to have Jalin back. He’s still not 100 percent, but him at 90 (percent) is still pretty good,” Thomas noted. “He ran really hard and is one of the few we’ve got with a different kind of burst.”

Senior linebacker Jashon Hill-Isaac led the defensive charge with 12 total tackles, two for loss.

There are still areas for the Chargers to sharpen up, specifically in the passing game.

“We still have a problem with the old forward pass, but at least we got a couple things we liked,” said Thomas. If you want to make a little bit of noise, you’ve got to be able to throw the ball because all the teams at least in Division 2 I think are so good defensively. We’ll keep working.”

Lunenburg will get a chance to move to 3-0 when they visit Brunswick before the bye week.

BUCKINGHAM WINS WITH LATE GAME HEROICS

It’s now 21 consecutive regular season victories for the Buckingham Knights, although the latest one did not come easy. 

On the road in Palmyra against Class 3 Fluvanna County, the Knights had to dig deep and hold on for a hard-fought 22-20 win, a much tighter battle than their 35-0 home shutout of the Flucos from a year ago. 

A goal-line stand on a two-point conversion with seven seconds to go after Fluvanna scored on its third touchdown pass of the game from Willi Lambert to Tramayne Minor proved to be the difference. 

“It was crazy. We had to overcome adversity,” commented Buckingham senior Emerson Edwards afterwards. “We had the crowd screaming, but in the end, we got it done. It was rough. I’m proud of my boys.” 

Leading 6-0 after one period of play on a touchdown from Ryland Carter, Buckingham increased the lead with 9:10 to play in the second period on Trevion Mitchell’s touchdown, followed by a two-point conversion to make the score 14-0. Just 29 seconds later though, Fluvanna cut into that deficit on the 70- yard scoring connection from Lambert to Minor. 

Mitchell would find the end zone again for the Knights and their advantage would be 22-14 at the break after turning it over on downs at the one-yard line. However, both offenses were stymied for practically the entire second half until the final minute of regulation. 

To close out September, Buckingham has two more road games with William Campbell (Sept. 12) and Prince Edward (Sept. 26) with a home date against Appomattox (Sept. 19) sandwiched in between. 

CUMBERLAND OFF TO 2-0 START 

For the first time since 2013, the Cumberland Dukes are off to a 2-0 start. The Dukes snapped a 10-game losing streak in the head-to-head series with William Campbell, doubling up the Generals 32- 16. 

After giving up 42 points or more in each of the previous four losses to William Campbell, the Dukes got it done with timely plays on defense. 

An errant snap recovered by Cumberland and returned 52 yards for a score by junior Harland Patterson with 9:43 remaining provided the final margin. They also benefitted from a 73-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to begin the second half and a 37-yard scoring run with 10:07 left in the fourth quarter – each courtesy of sophomore Xavier Booker. 

RANDOLPH-HENRY PITCHES SECOND HALF SHUTOUT 

Evening their record to 1-1 overall were the Randolph-Henry Statesmen, able to go on the road and blank Arcadia 21-0 in a game that was scoreless at half-time. 

The Statesmen ran the ball 36 times for 80 yards and two touchdowns. Through the air, Randolph-Henry completed 10 of 17 passes for 163 yards and a touchdown. Arcadia was held to just 95 total yards with only 13 through the air on four completions. 

Ironically enough, it was the first shutout pitched by Randolph-Henry since blanking Arcadia 49-0 on Oct. 17, 2012. 

Randolph-Henry can match their win total from all of 2024 if they’re able to win at Cumberland before the home opener on Sept. 19 against William Campbell.