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VICTORIA – Go ahead and blame it on the storm. Thanks to Hurricane Ian, this past week’s high school football schedule looked more like an unfinished puzzle. Some teams like Central Lunenburg and Buckingham played on Thursday before the storm arrived. Others, like Cumberland, Fuqua and Prince Edward County, switched to a Monday night schedule. And a few more just postponed games for later in the season. 

With that in mind, this will be a shorter notebook than usual, as the Monday night games ran past press time. To find scores for each of those, you can bookmark and refresh this story later tonight, when we’ll have an updated version. But for right now, it’s all about the Chargers and Knights. 

Central Lunenburg keeps unblemished record

When Central Lunenburg and Nottoway get together, the games usually are tight and competitive to the very finish.  After all, there hasn’t been a running clock margin – final deficit of 35 points or greater – since Nottoway’s 36-0 shutout in 1976.

Things are much different in 2022, though.

In a game that was moved up a day earlier to Thursday night to beat the inclement weather from Hurricane Ian, Central put forth an eye-opening masterpiece.  They blanked the Cougars 47-0 to notch their largest victory ever in the series and first shutout of Nottoway since a 14-0 triumph in 1993.

It also ended a three-game losing streak in the head-to-head series with Nottoway, who beat them 28-14 a season ago and also won fairly close ballgames in the previous two encounters by margins of 27-22 and 20-19.

Lunenburg had their way with the Nottoway defense, rushing for 342 yards on 39 carries, using six different rushers.  Sophomore Amarion Moore carried the ball eight times for 157 yards and a pair of scores.  Bam Jones added 56 yards and a touchdown on 11 attempts, and fellow senior K.J. Watson had similar numbers with 55 yards rushing and a score on nine carries.

Defensively, senior end Jamel Alexander was one of eight defenders who made a stop behind the line of scrimmage.  Alexander finished with nine tackles, four tackles for loss and blocked a punt.  Watson shared game-high tackle honors with nine total stops.  

Jones, Connor Mattox, Cahlil Daniel, Seth Bishop and Jahiem Callaham combined for 11 tackles for loss.  Nottoway was held to a mere 54 total yards, none on first down.

Now 6-0, the Chargers have matched the program’s best start from 2013, which coincidentally marks the last time they won multiple playoff games in the same year.  They’ll have a chance to get to 7-0 when they host winless Cumberland in a contest scheduled for Friday, Oct. 7.

Buckingham makes it four straight

The Buckingham Knights have certainly put the 37-24 loss to reigning Region 2C Champion Appomattox from late August well behind them.  Coach Seth Wilkerson’s squad closed out the month of September 4-0, outscoring foes 184-40.

Buckingham’s latest triumph was a 38-6 victory over Franklin in the first ever meeting between the two schools.  K.J. Williams powered the way with 115 yards rushing and a touchdown to go with a stellar effort on defense, where he made four tackles, two for loss, and intercepted a Broncos pass.

Williams got plenty of help, in particular from fellow seniors Kymeir Lockett, Rocco Raynor and Jevonte Jones.  Lockett rushed for 105 yards and three touchdowns.  Raynor ran for 90 yards and a score to go with seven tackles on defense.  Jones led the defensive effort, stymying a Franklin offense that had put up 70 points in its first two games by holding them to a season-low one touchdown.

The next test for Buckingham is a trip to Randolph-Henry on Friday, Oct. 7.  Buckingham has taken 13 of the past 14 meetings with the lone exception coming in a 20-0 loss in 2016.