The game everyone was hoping for has arrived. Lord Botetourt will host
William Byrd Friday night in Daleville in a Region 3D semifinal football game.
The two Blue Ridge District rivals played an “instant classic” on October
24th in Vinton. A back-and-forth shootout ended in a 42-41 win for the host
Terriers, their second close win over the Cavaliers in the past two meetings. Last
November in the playoffs Byrd ended LB’s season with a 46-44 double overtime
win. Since Brad Lutz became head coach at Byrd in 2019 the teams have met 10 times and Botetourt holds a 6-4 edge. However, Byrd has won four of the last five.
With that in mind, local football fans were excited to see LB and Byrd
ranked two-three when the Region 3D final power ratings were released at the end
of the regular season.
Both teams finished 7-3 but LB had a slightly higher power
rating to earn the second spot and home advantage if both teams won their
opening round playoff games. That came to fruition last week as third seeded
Byrd beat sixth seeded Bassett, 38-10, and LB defeated seventh seeded Cave
Spring, 42-7.
So, the border rival Terriers and Cavaliers meet again this Friday with a
spot in the region final on the line. Botetourt will be the host team with a 7 p.m.
kickoff and there’s sure to be a huge crowd on both sides of the gridiron.
“They are another quality opponent from a very strong Blue Ridge
District,” said Byrd coach Brad Lutz. “They run really good schemes on both
sides of the ball that force you to invest a lot of film time and mental reps during
the week.”
The Terriers would like to score in the 40s again but are hoping it won’t
be necessary. The last two meetings between these two have been high-scoring,
entertaining games.
“We will need to play our most physical game of the season and tackle
well,” said Lutz. “Like us, they have numerous skilled players that put a lot of
stress on you.”
Lutz is hoping the Byrd defense has a repeat performance of last week’s
win over Bassett when the Terriers got some revenge. The Bengals had beaten
Byrd during the regular season, 44-35, but last Friday in Vinton the Terrier
defense held them to just 10 points.
“We’ve gained more experience since the first time we played Bassett,”
said Lutz. “Our players had a great week of prep and have played some great
teams, who prepared us for a rematch with Bassett in the playoffs.”
The Terriers jumped on top early with Gray Matthews racing 44 yards for
the first touchdown of the game. Bassett answered with a 23 yard field goal but
Jamez Toler had a 25 yard TD run and Byrd led 14-3 after the first quarter.
The home team upped the lead to 21-3 by the half on a six yard
touchdown pass from quarterback Cannin Lutz to Mason Hershel. Then Byrd
increased the lead when Zane Taylor ran 41 yards for a score and the Terriers held
a 28-3 edge heading into the final period.
The Bengals scored their first and only TD of the night in the fourth
quarter on a 49 yard run. However, Toler got the seven back on a 23 yard run and
Connor Whitehead closed the scoring with a 37 yard field goal. Conner was also
perfect on the night on five extra point kicks.
Byrd finished with 292 yards rushing among three backs. Toler had 207
yards on 26 carries, Matthews had 44 on his lone attempt and Taylor had one
carry for 41 yards. The Terriers averaged just under 10 and a half yards per carry
among the three with four rushing touchdowns.
Cannin Lutz was eight for 13 passing for 89 yards and a TD to Hershel.
Thomas Purcell had three catches for 22 yards and Kevin Green caught two
passes for 26 yards.
Defensively, Hershel had a big game with nine tackles, including two for
losses and a sack. Tyler Harris has seven tackles, Justyn Rozenboom had five
tackles, and Tate Kotz had four.
With the win Byrd has now beaten every team on the schedule in their
classification. At 8-3 the other two losses were to Class 5 William Fleming and
Franklin County. The win over Bassett was sweet revenge in front of a vocal
home crowd.
“I was proud of all of our players and coaches,” said Lutz. “Everyone in
the program had a great week preparing for a quality opponent like Bassett. It was
a really good team win for us.”
The other Region 3D semifinal has Carroll County going to Ridgeway to
play top-seeded Magna Vista. If Magna Vista wins that game the Warriors will
host the Region 3D final, but if fourth seeded Carroll can pull the upset the Byrd-
Botetourt winner would be home for the championship game.
