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The Buckingham County Knights may have lost Friday, but they ended the season the same way they played all year, playing a tough, physical game. 

Clarke County came into Friday’s game averaging 34 points on the season and following a two-game stretch where they scored 72 total points and only gave up 7. With that in mind, you might think this would be an offensive slugfest, but you’d be wrong. Facing a Buckingham defense ranked #1 in the region, Clarke County scored three touchdowns en route to a 21-7 win. 

As we mentioned, those points didn’t come easy. Buckingham just coughed up one touchdown in each of the first three quarters, while getting on the board themselves in the third quarter. But while the Knights drove into Clarke County territory multiple times in the third and fourth quarters, they struggled to get the ball into the end zone. 

Overall, Buckingham finishes the season improving in almost every way over 2022. Last year, they were 8-3. This time, they finish 9-2. Last year, they were 8-3 and 5-1 in the James River region. This year, they went undefeated in the region, clinching a regular season title. And there’s the improvement made on the field, on both sides of the ball. Including Friday’s game, Buckingham gave up a total of 99 points on the year. As you’ll see below, there are some teams that gave up more than that in one game. Dividing that over 11 games, the Knights gave up an average of 9 points, by far the best in the region. And that’s an improvement over last season, where they only coughed up an average of 11.9 per game. With the majority juniors and underclassmen, the Knights seem primed to make another run next year. 

THE UGLIEST GAME OF THE DAY 

Now we mentioned one team coughed up more than 99 points and even though they’re not in our region, it seemed worth mentioning. On Friday night in Region 4A, Phoebus took on Jamestown. Now it’s worth mentioning that the last time the Phoebus Phantoms lost a game was in 2021. This season, they have given up a combined 10 points total all year. But the defense wasn’t the story Friday night. Instead, it was the offense, which just exploded for a 104-0 win over Jamestown. We had to double check and make sure we weren’t looking at a basketball score. 

SEASON ENDS FOR CENTRAL HIGH 

Central Lunenburg came into this season with a focus to get back to the playoffs. Coming off its first unbeaten regular season since 1995, the team had some holes to fill, due to multiple players graduating. They did that by pulling some underclassmen up from the JV squad. That made what they accomplished even more impressive, going 8-4 with several starters getting their first taste of varsity. The offensive production was nearly identical, generating 456 points compared to 458 from last year’s senior laden team. It’s worth pointing out they did all this in the team’s first year moving up from the Class 1 ranks. 

And they made it back to the playoffs, going on the road to take on the 5-5 Southampton Indians Friday. But this time around, it was one and done for Central, as the Chargers lost 44-30.