Ends regular season with 6-4 record
By Duncan Nixon, Correspondent
The Fluvanna high school football team traveled to Louisa High on Friday (Nov. 3) for the final game of the Flucos’ regular season against the undefeated Lions. The venue is about as hostile as you can get, with loud fans, an intentionally obnoxious announcer, fireworks for every Louisa touchdown, and a history of winning with strong talented players. The works!
The first half gave the Lions’ fans a serious scare. Fluvanna has some strong talented players of its own. The Lions took an early 7-0 lead on a long touchdown run, but it was Fluvanna that controlled the ball and the clock for most of the first half. On the first two Fluvanna possessions, promising drives were ended by fumbles. On their third possession, the Flucos marched down the field to tie the score on an 11-yard touchdown run by Prophett Harris. The Louisa stadium was uncharacteristically subdued at halftime with the score at 7-7.
Unfortunately for the Flucos, the second half was a different story. The Flucos continued to turn the ball over – six times for the game – and the Lions started to do a better job of stopping Fluvanna’s impressive run game. As a result, Louisa piled up two touchdowns in each of the final two quarters for a 35-7 win.
First year Coach Mike Morris said after the game that Louisa has developed a program, while Fluvanna is developing a program. The results in Mike Morris’ first year have been very impressive. According to Fluvanna Athletic Director Scott Morris (no relation to the coach) the last time the Fluvanna football team had a winning regular season record was 2001. Although the Flucos lost their last three games, the season has to be considered wildly successful. This is especially true in light of the fact that Mike Morris was brought in as head coach very late, after the initially hired first year coach walked away.
The Flucos opened their season with a 21-0 road win over Bluestone High. Their home opener was a close 14-21 loss to Spotsylvania High. After a bye week, the Fluco then did something that Fluco football fans had not seen in a very long time. They went on a five-game winning streak.
The Flucos’ third game of the season provided a very clear signal that 2018 was going to be a turning point year. The team traveled to Madison County, and after trailing at halftime, the Fluco offense roared up and down the field, scoring an astonishing 50 points in one half. Freshman quarterback Kobe Edmonds and senior running backs Dametrez Christmas, Prophett Harris and Nathan Smith appeared to be unstoppable. The Flucos won 57-35.
The following week the Flucos were back at home against Jefferson District opponent Monticello High. It was a good close game, and the Flucos were victorious 22-17. After that came another Jefferson District opponent. The Flucos were at home and they managed a one-point win over Orange County at 22-21. The Flucos then traveled to neighboring Charlottesville High. The Black Knights and the Flying Flucos conducted a shoot-out with the Flucos prevailing 37-29.
The Fluco fifth consecutive win, which ensured a winning season, occurred Oct. 10, when they traveled south to Powhatan and came home with a 16-7 win.
With a 6-4 regular season record, the Flucos have qualified for the Virginia High School League playoffs. Post season play in basketball has been a common event for the Flucos, but football, not so much. The Flucos will be traveling to Lynchburg Friday (Nov. 9) to take on the 7-3 Brookville High Bees.
Hopefully, post season play will become a regular event for Fluco football. Coach Mike Morris will be losing virtually all his leading skill players as a host of seniors will be graduating and moving on. Quarterback Edmonds will only be a sophomore next year. The Flucos, however, will be returning some outstanding linemen. Juniors Walt Stribling, William Custer and Eli Hartzog will all presumably be back, and they were crucial to the Flucos’ running game and its defense.
