A night for Knights

Dating back to last year, Charlottesville High School had lost seven straight games.

That changed on Friday night as the Black Knights, sporting new uniforms, dispatched cross-town rival Albemarle on their home field.

CHS, using a balanced attack and opportunistic defense, broke to an early lead and held off the Patriots 28-13.

“[The win is] huge,” said second-year Charlottesville coach Chris Fraser. “From what we went through last week and coming off of last year, and trying to get our kids to believe you keep working hard and good things will happen, and that happened for us tonight.”

Charlottesville (1-2) jumped to a 7-0 first-quarter lead as Davonte’ Taylor bulled his way up the middle and in for a 23-yard touchdown. Taylor finished with 56 yards on eight carries.

The biggest plays of the night came late in the second quarter, as the Black Knights’ defense stepped up. Charlottesville intercepted a pair of Albemarle passes, both of which set up touchdowns.

With two minutes to play until halftime, freshman quarterback Benj Wilhelm hooked up with Adrian Thurston for a 44-yard TD strike.

Then Charlottesville’s Xavier Porter intercepted another Joseph Varaska pass, nearly running it back for a touchdown.

“We knew we had good players and we knew they could do that, we just had to put it all together and not drop our heads,” Fraser added. “I’m so proud of them because we put a whole game together.”

It took just one play for the Black Knights to score again, as Wilhelm threw another pretty pass to Thurston, who hauled in his second touchdown of the night. Wilhelm was efficient for CHS, completing his first six passes of the game.

However, Albemarle didn’t go down without a fight. The Patriots got a spark from Mayn Francisco in the second half, who ran in from 18 yards out to get the visitors on the board.

Albemarle (0-3) continued to chip away at the lead, and scored again early in the fourth quarter as Varaksa connected with Andrew Frazier for a 10-yard score. Charlottesville blocked the extra point to hold onto the 21-13 lead.

After being forced to punt, Charlottesville’s defense came up big on Albemarle’s ensuing drive. The Black Knights sacked Varaksa, then recovered a fumble with three minutes to play.

Charlottesville sealed the win as Daniel Chmil found his way in the end zone from 2 yards out.

“We told the players to put the first half behind them,” said Albemarle coach Wendell Green. “I didn’t think they did anything to stop us in the first half, but we hurt ourselves — we made mental mistakes. I liked the way they responded. I just didn’t like the way they finished.”