Despite scoring the first points of the game, Cumberland suffered a 48-14 loss to the Central Lunenburg Chargers on Friday night in the Dukes’ final game of the season.

Cumberland finished 2-7, while Lunenburg, 7-3, advances to the Class 1A East Region playoffs.

“I thought the first half of the game was clearly our best offensive effort this year,” said Cumberland head football coach Ed Knapp. “Some of the strides we’ve been making behind the scenes started to bear fruit in that half. Defensively, we still have a long way to go with some of our schemes. We made a few stops, but we continue to spend too much time on defense.”

The Dukes’ Darius Jackson started the game with a 23-yard touchdown reception from Ziahir Berry, and James Booker scored in the second quarter on a 48-yard reception from Brandon Leabough, which ended the the Dukes’ scoring.

Jackson had six carries for 27 yards, while Berry had two for 16 yards.

The Dukes finished the night with just 37 rushing yards.

Kaleb Boyles led the Dukes defensively with 12 tackles. Raheem Rumsey, Daquan Trent and Dakoda Boyles followed with nine each, and Jaylen Gilliam added eight.

“I was pleased with the play of our seniors,” Knapp said. “Darius Jackson continues to demonstrate why he is our team leader on both sides of the ball. Dakoda Boyles was everywhere on defense, and although we struggled to get the ball to him, Ahmad Booker is the best receiver I’ve seen this year. Our seniors this year really bought in to help start the transformation of our program.”

Cumberland opted out of playing Goochland and Buckingham high schools this year and was thus ineligible for playoff contention. The Dukes will not play both teams next year either. They  will be eligible again for the playoffs in 2017.