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Fuqua School’s varsity football team made the trip to Chesapeake to face an experienced Greenbrier Christian Academy squad Saturday, March 6, falling 43-6.

The game was Fuqua’s second in the eight-man football format.

“We ran into a buzzsaw of a team that was senior-laden that had been playing for a while and is just a good team,” Falcons Head Coach Ben Manis said.

He noted that in the Gators’ eight-man lineup, four of their starters are going to play college football, including one who has a Division I walk-on offer.

“We played against some good athletes,” Manis said.

Speaking Sunday, March 7, after having watched some of the game film, Manis shared his impressions.

“We had flashes that we looked pretty good, and then you’d have a play where we kind of blew it up,” he said.

Significant injuries were not a factor for Fuqua, but there were other notable contributing factors.

“We were sore and banged up from the week before,” Manis said. “That definitely didn’t help, and we kind of came out flat, (it was a) Saturday afternoon game and (we were) traveling down there on a Saturday. We just didn’t do anything to help ourselves.”

The coach said the Falcons’ lone score was set up by junior lineman Jordan Johns, who grabbed an interception and returned it to about the Gators’ 10-yard line. After a throw and a couple running plays, junior quarterback Nate Reed scored on a short run.

Fuqua (0-2) had been set to visit Kenston Forest School on Wednesday, March 10, before hosting Blessed Sacrament Huguenot School on Friday, March 12, but those games have been canceled. The Falcons will now be hosting Virginia Episcopal School on Friday at 6:30 p.m.